Grow Your Business in Dayton (Gybindayton.com)
Learn about networking, advertising, and other great ideas for growing your business in Dayton
Since I subscribe to COPYBLOGGER, I get their blog posts in my email each day. The web site is all about the content that you put on your web site or blog or even on your facebook page for your business. I thought todays tips were helpful and clear so I am sharing the link with you here:
The Simple 5 Step Formula for Effective Online Content
Peter DeMott • REACH Magazine • Advertising in Dayton, Ohio • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222
Monitor organic word searches that bring people to your web siteFor a couple weeks I have been noticing that “Allen Promotional Products” as a search term was leading people to this web site. I was wondering why that would be so. At that point I went ahead and “Googled” (did a search for) “Allen Promotional Products Dayton” and what I found surprised me. My web site, not Allen’s, had the number ONE and number TWO listing for Allen’s company.
Some time back I did a blog post about Allen Promotional Products. I went back and looked at it. I tried the link for his site that I had in the post and it did not work. At that point I gave Allen a call. He explained that with “www” his web site would no longer come up, but without the “www” it was fine. He had brought this up with his web guy and nothing was done. I corrected the link so that people looking for his company would be able to find him, but I also explained that I was astonished that if I searched for the name of his company and the city he is in, that he was nowhere to be found. Not on page one, page two, not on page three (I stopped looking at that point).
I suggested that he should have a consultation with my web guy AND that he discuss adding a self hosted WordPress blog within his web site. Right now the news in SEO is that “content is king”. What that means is that actual content and updated NEW content on your web site has a higher priority for searches than unchanging meta data and keywords.
If you set up a blog correctly within your web site all the words you post become searchable content for the Google spiders to explore and resource for the search engine. I explained to Allen that if he sold printed gel pens for promotional purposes and this customer was located in Centerville and the business sold lawn mowers for example, Allen could post something about that with pictures on the blog portion of his web site it would be searchable material for Google. Now if someone puts in a search for “lawn mower promotion” or “someone who can print on gel pens” or “promotional items in Centerville” these searches will all lead to his web site.
In every post he would add his company name, phone number and email address so that in the future if someone searched for Allen Promotional Products in Dayton, Ohio his web site would become the first listing on that search page.
My web guy lives and works here in Dayton. He does major web design to small starting out stuff. He is fluent in various web mark up languages and understands the ins and outs of WordPress as well. You can see some of his work on his web site http://www.e-3design.com/ His email is Larry@e-3design.com . I recommend him to REACH clients and many have outstanding web sites because of it.
If you have a static web site (that means one that just sits there without new added information for long periods of time) it will gradually go down each day and week in the page ratings. Google sees static unchanging sites as OLD information and losing importance each day. However if your web site is updated frequently with posts on your blog (once a day, once a week or whatever), your web site will be graded to have cutting edge and current information. And with each post you will be adding more words that can lead people to your web site through organic searches (That means not cost to you, the person just put some words in the search box and clicked on the search button).
This is fairly basic information about SEO, but frequently businesses that I work with say, “why would I want a blog?” Now that you know what a blog can do for you when it is properly integrated within your web site, perhaps you will talk with someone about converting or upgrading your web site. Just starting to blog on some free blogging site will only bring people to your blog. It will not bring people to your web site. You have to properly integrate the web site and the blog together to have a positive effect on your web site visits.
I am not a programer. I explained it this way to a friend recently, ” I can drive my car, but I don’t always know how to make it work correctly…for that I have a mechanic.” It’s funny that the WordPress blog has a “dashboard” and I can drive my blog, but I don’t have to be a programmer and understand the guts of the thing to make it work, that’s why I have Larry@e-3design.com . He knows the guts of the thing and can do whatever I need done to make things work and look the way I want.
Peter DeMott • REACH Magazine • Dayton, Ohio • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222
By listing your business and web site on directories you will have a bigger footprint on the internet, but it can be very time consuming to go to Yahoo and Bing and Google and about 100 other directory lists. Listening to a presentation by a marketing company, they suggested that you use a service for this. They suggested UBL.org, so this morning I went through the process of listing my photography business on UniversalBusinessListing-List Once. Be Found .
I am now registered with them with a password login and my photography business will be listed on, looks like about 100 directory list services all over the internet. The basic service is $30. I cannot imagine how much time it would take me to find and list my business on all these directories.
You will need to have a web site address for your logo and some pictures. Because I didn’t know this, I had to come back after I had gathered the information I needed to complete the process. I was able to use my media files from my web site for live link locations for my logo and some pictures related to my business. You will then fill out various forms that describe your business, give your website address, your email address, business location, phone numbers, and various other aspects of your business. Once you have everything in, you just pay with a credit card. The basic package is $30.00. There are about five levels, but the recommended package was just the basic package which does most of the important work.
I did not do it for this web site. I did it for my photography web site: http://www.photosbypdemott.com . In a couple weeks I can come back and tell you if I notice any differences in traffic. I have listed my photography web site on many directories over the years. There is no question that having an automated system to list my web site on that many directories across the web universe is worth every penny of $30. This also lists your business on all the white and yellow page web sites on the web.
Peter DeMott • REACH Magazine • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222 • Dayton, Ohio
This is a short video from the JOY OF MARKETING that explains how Google is now prioritizing local search and how you can do some SEO (search engine optimization) to help your web site using this information. This is on YouTube, so I am hoping that it will work just fine.
For my non-photographer friends and businesses, this mentions photography. But, you can certainly consider these valuable changes for your business web site that is non-photography related. If you are looking for business from the local area with your web site, these suggestions can be extremely helpful to you.
Just in case the embed does not work correctly here is the link as well: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG6_2OdFWaQ
Some of the recommendations are to add your local city and state to every page on your web site or your address. So for this web site, to localize more, I would include that this blog is directed to businesses in the Dayton, Ohio area who are trying to grow through SEO, networking, and various forms of paid advertising (REACH magazine, for example).
Hope you found this helpful.
Peter DeMott, 8390 Germantown Pike, Germantown, Ohio 45327 • peter@photosbypdemott.com • 937-478-6222
REACH magazine, Dayton’s Favorite direct mail coupon magazine, 2360 West Dorothy Lane, Suite 101, Dayton, Ohio 45439
Peter DeMott Photography, offering photography for businesses and individuals for web sites, profiles portraits, senior pictures and equine portraits. http://www.photosbypdemott.com
This morning I received a facebook message from one of my other clients. She has a friend who is changing salons and wants to announce it in the next issue of REACH magazine.
It is becoming more and more clear to me that every business and business person should have a Facebook profile and perhaps a business PAGE on Facebook. Linked In and Facebook and Twitter are all linked together now. If you put something on Linked In, you can have it automatically posted to your twitter and Facebook profiles with a single click if you like. In addition you can have messages from Facebook forwarded to your email or as text messages to your smart phone.
For those of you who don’t “get it” what you have to understand is that these programs are about relationships, not about posting silly things like, “I’m having a cup of coffee at Starbucks.” Now and then, comments like that are just fine, but in the context of knowing that person it can be a tiny bit more that you know about them. When you post to your personal profile, it is important that you are not the person with the one note post saying, “business, business, business” over and over again. People will tune you out or turn you off. You have to step out of the box and start sharing things about who you are and what interests you.
I have now had clients message me with referrals, with requests for appointments regarding advertising in REACH magazine, and with questions about my photography business as well. More and more today, people are choosing who they want to do business with based on relationships. Understand that quality of product and service have to be there as well, but given those if someone feels they know you even just a little bit, then they are going to be more likely to do business with you.
As I work with businesses selling them advertising in REACH magazine, many times I also pass on the knowledge that I have about running a WordPress Website/blog along with having a profile and a PAGE on facebook. Over a year ago I made a conscious decision to embrace technology. What I mean is that I purchased a smart phone (iPhone for me), I started a profile on Facebook, Linked In, and Twitter, and I am making a conscious effort to learn more each day about how people and businesses can use these to enhance their lives.
Here is a story about a photographer client and how Facebook has made a difference in a strong and unusual way:
I have been following Duct Tape Marketing with John Jantsch for some time. In fact when I was doing my advertising and marketing course for equine photographers online a couple of years ago, he donated a couple of his best selling book on advertising for small businesses. Now I subscribe to his blog via an email subscription and I also subscribe to his podcast via iTunes.
This particular podcast was interesting in that I have been using WordPress for this blog and my photography business web site for about six months. The title of this podcast is “Marketing in the age of Google” and it is an interview with the author of the book by the same name. Their conversation moves over to using WordPress as a complete web site which is what I do.
In just six months my photography web site has gone from 500-700 visits per month to over 5,000 visits in the month of May. Hope you enjoy this podcast and if you would like to meet to discuss advertising here in the Dayton area, I would love to meet with you. We can talk about WordPress websites, facebook pages, REACH magazine and THE BIG DEAL on eREACH.com Feel free to call me at 937-478-6222 or email me at peter@photosbypdemott.com . I have over 20 years experience working with small businesses in this area, helping them to grow through advertising and advice.
You can listen from his web site here by clicking on the link at the top of the post.
http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2010/05/20/marketing-in-the-age-of-google/
Or you can go to iTunes here and listen to the May 20th podcast here:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/small-business-marketing-blog/id78797836
I subscribe to several other blogs about social media and internet marketing to feed me good ideas and keep me up to date. Both of these blogs are available as email subscriptions which makes it very easy to keep up.
Mashable is all inclusive and covers everything social media from the iPad and cell phones to YouTube and Facebook. When it arrives in my mailbox it starts with a list of links to each article so that you can scan the list and see what may be interesting to you and go straight to whatever interests you most.
TopRank is a bit more focused on SEO and getting noticed on the internet.
Here are three article links that I found informative and useful:
10 Easy Local SEO & Online Marketing Tips from TopRank
http://www.toprankblog.com/2010/05/local-search-tips/
7 Essential SEO Tips for Small Business from TopRank
http://www.toprankblog.com/2010/05/7-seo-tips-small-business/
From Mashable, this is more in depth for the business owner willing to invest more time
10 Small Business Social Marketing Tips
http://mashable.com/2009/10/28/small-business-marketing/
Although social media is growing exponentially, I have to say that REACH Magazine is still powerful marketing for many categories of business. I have been in incentive marketing for over 20 years now, and have a long track record of matching up the right businesses for the right media and with the right incentive offers. There are many coupon venues in the Dayton market, but none of them have the rank and power of REACH magazine (The Media Audit 2009) and for the right business, REACH can be a powerful lead generator or sale generator. Please feel free to give me a call to discuss your business and marketing in REACH magazine. Along the way you also get the information that I have found helpful in the realm of social marketing free of charge. In addition we now have a new viral internet marketing program for businesses trying to reach consumers in a new and interesting way with no up front investment at all. Peter DeMott 937-478-6222
