Step #1 - Setting up & Optimizing your Google+ Author Profile

If you haven't done so already, you will need to create your personal Google+ author profile, which will be linked to all the blog posts that you have written (and will write in the future). For best results, your profile needs to be entirely filled. Choose a nice and clear face shot as this picture will appear near all your listings in search results! The most important part of your profile is the "Contributor To" section in which you will have to add all the blogs that you contribute to, including your own.

PS: If there are many different bloggers on your site, each one of them will need to set up their own Google+ profile.

Step #2 - Connecting your Google+ Profile to your Blog Posts

There is a new tag called rel=author that you will need to embed in every blog post to implement Google+ authorship. If you are the only author on your blog, you can add the following line in your author bio at the bottom of each post:

If you are using WordPress, you can simplify the process by installing WordPress SEO by Yoast. This plugin has a section where you can enter your Google+ profile URL and it will automatically embed it to all of your posts. Remember that if there are many authors on your blog, each one of them will need to have their own rel=author code embedded in each post. Once you're done setting up your author tags, you will want to use Structural Data Testing Tool within Webmaster Tools to verify that your authorship is properly set up. Enter the URL to any of your blog posts and click Preview. You should see your author info along with your listing.

More information on Google+ Authorship here.

Step #3 - Setting up & Optimizing your Google+ Business Page

Now that your personal profile and authorship are all set, the next step is to create your business page. If you have a local business, this page will help you rank in Google local results (Google Maps). If you are a business with multiple locations, check out this post we posted a while ago about how to make sure that each of your locations ranks high in its particular area.

Just like with your personal profile, you want your G+ business page(s) to be entirely filled out, don't leave any field blank! Add some pictures and/or videos you have of your company. Don't forget to also add a link to your main website, your blog and links to your other social media pages.

Step #4 - Connecting your Website to your Google+ Business Page

Now that your business page is set up, you want it to come up in the search results (on the right hand side) when someone searches for your brand on Google. (Remember: when someone searches for your brand, you want to completely dominate the 1st page. Your brand name is the easiest but also the most important keyword to rank for! -Reputation Management 101-)

Just like when connecting your author profile to your blog posts, there is a tag that you need to use to link your G+ business page with your website: rel=publisher. Simply add the following line in your header (before the </head> tag):

Again, if you're using WordPress, you can do this easily with the WordPress SEO plugin by Yoast.

Step #5 - Building your Network and Improving your Author Rank

Now that both your authorship and business profiles are all set, you want to start building your network on Google+ and improve your author rank.

Author rank is a component of Google's ranking algorithm that is still work in progress. There are a lot of conflicting opinions on what author rank really is, but I personally like to think that Author rank is to authors what PageRank is to web pages. What we know so far is that many factors will influence your author rank, such as: +1s your content receives, amount of people that have you in their circles, your social activity, amount of articles written (on both your blogs and external blogs), interaction levels with other authors, etc...

Now let's talk about building your network. If you have just created your author and business pages, you probably don't have much of a following. The first thing you want to do at this point is to get a few relevant people in your circles. Start by importing contacts from your email address. Add each contact to a specific circle (family, friends, business contacts, etc...). Do this for both your author profile and your business page. While you're at it, add me and I'll most likely return the favor!

If you're hungry for more contacts, I highly recommend joining a few relevant communities on Google+. This is the easiest way to get noticed in your industry. Some people will add you to their circles just because you're a member of the same community as them. If there are no relevant communities in your type of business, PERFECT, create one and invite your contacts to join!

Last but not least, don't forget to share all your blog posts on both your personal author profile and your business page. Ask questions to encourage people to interact with your content. The more interactions, comments and +1s you get, the more authority you'll gain! Higher Authority = Better Rankings = Higher Traffic = More Sales/Leads.

Additional Advanced Google Plus Tips

For those that want to go the extra mile with G+, here are a few additional tips to make sure you get the best possible results:

• Put an easy 1-click page badge on your site. (Similar to the one I included above) This allows people to follow you brand on G+ in 1 click.
• Write guest posts on relevant external blogs and link to your G+ profile from the author bio. (Great way to improve your author rank!)
• Test different profile pictures. Cyrus Shepard, from seomoz, improved his CTR by 56% simply by changing his profile photo.
• Don't be afraid to add unknown people to your circles, as long as they are in your industry. (Unlike Facebook where people tend to only add their own friends, Google+ is more open, so don't be afraid to add relevant people to your circles.)
• Link to your G+ profile and business page from everywhere! (your website, blog, email signature, business cards, etc...)
• Encourage your existing clients to follow your business page and leave positive reviews.
• Get involved in Google Hangouts. Find out if there are hangouts in your industry that you'd like to be a part of. If not, consider creating your own hangout and invite your contacts to join.
• Be active on G+ on a daily basis. +1 and comment on the posts you like to generate engagement and be noticed in your industry.

The post 5 Steps to Get The Most Out of Google+ and Authorship; A Guide for Small & Medium Businesses appeared first on IronMonk Solutions.

Customer service is going social, and it’s not just the big players anymore. By the end of 2012, about 80 percent of companies were using social media to provide some form of customer support or customer service. And customers are taking notice and capitalizing on the convenience, too. About one-third of customers say they turn to branded Facebook pages for answers to questions or other support problems. Sixty-two percent of customers have already turned to social media to solve some customer service issue. And more than half (55 percent) say they expect a same-day response from a social media question or complaint. That means brands need to start paying attention. If you’re not already taking advantage of the many advantages to using social media as a customer service component (or even if you are but think you can ramp up your efforts), check out the following infographic to see how other companies are successfully using this medium to drive brand recognition and customer satisfaction.

This infographic was made by ClickSoftware, the leading provider of field service and workforce management software and solutions. Find mobility workforce management from ClickSoftware.com.

The post Customer Service is Going Social appeared first on IronMonk Solutions.

Below are five things you could be doing on social media that are hurting your business, and how you can make them right...

Tweeting about yourself (Overly!)

When you're a business, social media is much more about listening than talking. Fans and followers expect conversations and engagement with the brands they like and hate being inundated with self-promotional content.

Social media is a two way conversation, so get out there and talk to your fans and followers like a human being. Respond to their messages or comments, answer their questions and be friendly. Use photos and video to add depth and richness to your posts. Ask questions and solicit feedback. Add value to your content, such as educational posts and industry news articles.

Retweet or share content from your fans and followers to build engagement and create a sense of community. Post the occasional funny image or video, even if it's not completely related to your industry.

Posting Inconsistently

Your accounts should have regular, consistent content. A page or feed that has a flurry of posts one week and nothing for several days will not generate a positive brand awareness.

Make sure your social media accounts consistent and real. Create an editorial calendar or a list of sources for great content, including events, news, photos, testimonials and post at regular intervals.

Use analytics from Facebook or Hootsuite (a social media management tool) to determine the best times to post, and stick with them. Typically, most brands post once or twice a day. More than that is not recommended unless your analytics prove otherwise.

Working Without a Plan

Social media may be the hip, trendy thing to do, but if you don't' have a plan in place for your social media campaign; you might as well spend your time elsewhere. Like any advertising and marketing, social media requires goals and action items. Every tweet or post should have an ultimate goal, whether it's strengthening your brand awareness, increasing your fan base or bringing in more money.

Use analytics and goal setting to quantify your return on investment. Drive traffic from social media to your website, blog or online store so you can convert visitors to paying customers. Track how many shares, comments or replies your messages attract, and if they aren't working, adapt and change until you find a recipe that works to reach your social media goals.

Not Establishing Your Voice

You might have already worked on establishing your voice and character for your brand, and it should continue into social media messages. One of the most jarring things you can do with your social media accounts is to have an inconsistent image, which can lead to loss of trust in your brand.

If you have several social media managers or monitors, make sure each works against a set of guidelines for tone, content and frequency. Your voice and vision should be the same for every platform, every day.

Ignoring Your Messages

Customers often use social media to communicate complaints about a product or service directly to the company in question. An ignored comment can quickly escalate to devastating consequences for a brand. Monitor often, even on weekends and evenings (or other non-business hours), and answer customers questions and concerns as soon as you can. Don't delete or hide messages - negative messages handled the correct way can actually be a boon for brands.

About the author: Tom is a respected, award-winning freelance journalist who prides himself on covering the best topics within the business realm. When he isn’t reviewing small business budget templates, he spends his time building his handmade sailboat that he hopes to sail sometime soon.

The post Top 5 Ways You’re Hurting Your Business On Social Media Sites appeared first on IronMonk Solutions.

Social Media will be More Than Engagement

When you think of the digital world as it is now, engagement is an outdated term. Social media has transformed into a platform that offers a lot more than just getting their fans engaged. It is no longer all about getting the best community management, but it is also about offering your customers data that translates into a completely new realm of activities. Fully embracing all of the opportunities on social platforms allows you to create relevant and personal information for your business to your customers.

Mobile Network Taking Over

Even though many thought that 2012 was the mobile phone age, it seems as if 2013 is going to be even more prevalent for the mobile phone. If you take the time to look at all of the data, you will notice that more and more individuals are browsing online and making their purchases through the Internet. More than two-thirds of all users go online using nothing more than their mobile phone. It seems as if the number of phones in the marketplace outweighs the number of individuals in the world. Thanks to 4G technology, more people than ever flocked to mobile technology as their means of exploring all of the available information social media has to offer.

Google and Facebook: Where Do They Stand?

In 2013, Google will be defined as wither being one to rise or one to fall by the wayside. They have yet to be successful in convincing marketers to spend their advertising budgets with their company and to leave Facebook. More and more options are coming available for those using Facebook right now. Facebook tends to be the more attractive option for those who are searching for a way to advertise. If Google wants to succeed, they need to differentiate themselves from all of the competition on the market already.

Emphasis on Optimizing Conversion Rates and Web Analytics

Due to all of the increased pressure from the economy, marketers will switch their tactics and start investing more of their money into CRO and web analytics. When you look at some of the critical tools on the market that are free, it is easy to see how others end up investing less than required to implement the plan properly. To find the total return on your investment, you will need to use analytics to analyze everything in its entirety.

Managers Become Your Most Valuable Asset

Since marketing teams are under an immense level of pressure to account for the budgets of social media marketplaces, they need to identify the customer’s journey and if a sale resulted from their visit or not. Multiple channels are used to garner sales, but you need to identify which method is making the largest amount of revenue for the company. Over the last year, web analytics has played an integral part of this equation. You will be able to determine the best methods for saving money and social markets to invest in for maximizing your revenue stream.

The post 5 social media trends for 2013 that you should know about appeared first on IronMonk Solutions.

Luckily you no longer have to guess the most ideal time to post because all the answers have been revealed in an exhaustive whitepaper from BuddyMedia that covers virtually every aspect of Facebook post optimization, entitled “Strategies for Effective Wall Posts: A Timeline Analysis.” This groundbreaking report combines activity data extracted from the fan pages of almost 2,000 of the world’s most popular branded fan pages during the months of April and May.

Of course, most of you won’t feel like reading the entire 32-page PDF just to find out when you should post, so we’ve summarized it into 4 convenient tips for you:

Avoid the Mid-Week Mistake

A good Facebook page is updated on a regular basis, but is not flooded with so much content that it appears spammy. Statistics show that a total of 3-7 posts per week are more effective than 7+ posts per week. With that said, if you are strategically choosing a day to post your next revolutionary update that you want all your fans to see – then avoid Wednesday like a bad habit! The report shows that fan engagement declines to more than 7% lower than average on this day. Not only that, but for some odd reason brands seem to post at a ridiculously high rate during mid-week, making this time ultra-competitive. So what’s the moral of tip 1? Ditch the mid-week altogether and instead try to...

Get In On the Weekend Whirlwind

Some niches experience up to almost 70% of an increase in engagement on the weekends. This seems rather obvious, given the fact that most people reserve the weekend as their ‘all play and no work’ time. Unfortunately for many brands, their social marketing experts are part of the group of people who take the weekends off, resulting in only 11% of posts being published on the weekends. So while all the consumers /fans are enjoying their free time on Facebook, you need to be hard at work putting out the best content of the week to get their attention and encourage interaction.

Is It Better to Post During Non-Busy Hours?

Unlike the tip above, this one seems counterintuitive. You would think that posting during busy hours would yield the most engaging responses, but the exact opposite is true. It appears that a lot more people are willing to comment and interact while staying up late than they are during the day. In fact, posts published between the hours of 8PM and 7AM receive almost 15% more engagement than posts published between the hours of 7AM and 8PM.

If you really think about it this makes sense because a lot of people browse Facebook during the day intermittently but don’t have the time to stop and reply to updates. Later on when they’re relaxing and getting ready for bed they have nothing else to do. Of course, “off-hours” is a relative term since it is always day time somewhere in the world, so you should base your efforts on the time-zone of your targeted audience.

Fine-Tuning Posting Times Based on Your Industry

The previous three tips provide a generalized overview of when you should be posting, but if you really want to dig down and take advantage of this report, the value is in the industry-specific data. Sunday seems to be the best day to post in most cases, but it turns out that mid-week isn’t so bad if you’re a “clothing and fashion” brand posting on Thursday.

The best approach is to post when most other brands in your industry are not posting, and on days that receive the highest interaction rates. Saturday and Sunday happen to fit this description well, especially for finance/banking pages. Yes, banks are closed on Sundays, but Facebook is not.  The only rare exception would be the Technology niche, which for some reason does not get a lot of attention on the weekends, but instead receives interaction rates that are 30% higher than average on Mondays.

If you want to be competitive in the telecommunications industry, try to stay away from Monday with your prime posts – most other telecommunications pages are already posting on that day so competition is high if you’re advertising a special promotion.

In the health niche Sunday and Monday are the best days to post, experiencing interaction rates that are between 10 and 12 percent higher than average. The worst day to post in the health niche is Tuesday, but ironically this is when 17% of health brand related posts are made.

Retail brands seem to enjoy the highest interaction rates on Monday, when engagement rises to almost 20% above average. Food and beverage brands are missing out on the weekend frenzy too because only 18% posts are published on Saturday and Sunday, the two days that enjoy a 19% increase in interaction. This is not surprising considering most people choose to eat out on the weekends more than during the week.

Advertising and consulting brands stand to gain the most from Facebook’s weekend popularity, especially those that are smart enough to think outside the box. It turns out 89% of posts are published during the week, despite that fact that the other 11% receive interaction rates that are 69% higher than average!

Regardless of which niche you operate in, it seems that posting in the middle of the night on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays would be the most effective formula for most brands. If you don’t see you industry mentioned in this article, check out the report. It covers optimal post times and the percentage of brands posting per day across 15 different niches.

The post When is the Best Time to Post on Facebook? appeared first on IronMonk Solutions.

If you believe that your website was legit and deserves a second chance, there is always a way for redemption! Your main goal at this point should be to get "algorithmically reconsidered" by cleaning up your link profile. Cleaning up means to either remove spammy/over-optimized links or edit the anchor text of links pointing to your site. If you chose to focus mainly on the latter option, you should know that using your brand name is always the safest bet when it comes to anchor text. This tells Google that you are not trying to force it to rank you for a specific keyword.

Here are four tips to help you start an effective link cleanup campaign and be on your way to redemption...

Use Ahrefs or MajesticSEO for Deep Link Analysis

Before taking any action it is important to take a deep look at your site's inbound link profile and identify the trouble makers. Tools like Ahrefs or MajesticSEO are a MUST for any webmaster  (regardless if you have been hit by Penguin or not). Ahrefs can provide you with a detailed overview for your site (or your competitors' sites!) that includes:

• Detailed Inbound Link Analysis: who's linking to you? Using what anchor text?
• Organic Rankings Analysis: which keywords is this website ranking for organically?
• PPC Keywords: which keywords is this website bidding on?

Using Ahrefs or MajesticSEO you can clearly see what your inbound link profile looks like in Google's eyes. You can also export all your inbound links to a CSV file, which should help you make a list of all websites you wish to contact to request a removal or a link edit.

When to Remove and When to Edit Links?

When reviewing the list of sites linking to your site, the first thing to do is to ask yourself: is this website valuable and relevant to my industry? If the answer is yes, then you can leave it as is or you can request that the webmaster changes your link's anchor text for your brand name instead of one of your "money keywords". If the answer is no, request a removal directly. It's really that simple. You don't want to be linked from irrelevant or spammy sites. If you are still unsure whether a link is worth keeping or not, consider the following points:

• Is the website indexed on Google?
• Does the website rank for its brand name or for any other keywords organically?
• Does the website have good MozRank and Alexa rankings?

Answering the 3 above questions will help you determine whether having a link on that website is providing value or not. If you have answered no to any of the above questions, that would be a sign that the website linking to you is also under some sort of penalty, so it's better to request a removal of your link.

Balance Your Porfolio By Engaging in Branded Link Building

Contrary to what many people think, link building is not dead. If you have been hit by Penguin, you want to focus on acquiring quality branded links from authority sites in your industry to balance out your link portfolio. The best way to achieve this is through guest posting.

If you don't know where to find guest posting opportunities within your industry, Google is your best friend. If you were in Finance for instance, you would want to type queries such as:

• "Guest Posting" Finance
• "Guest Post" Finance
• Submit Guest Post Finance
• "Write for us" Finance
• "Submit Article" Finance

You get the idea? Replace "finance" with your own niche. These queries will help you find a list of websites that accept guest posts within your industry.

Another great way to find guest posting opportunities is to use MyBlogGuest. This online tool puts you in contact with thousands of webmasters that can publish your article on their site. They even have a live gallery where you can submit your article. Webmasters can see a preview of your article in the gallery and send you an offer if they are interested in publishing it on their site. Great tool!

Create More Great Content

This is one thing that you always need to keep doing regardless of which update Google launches. With every new update, whether it be Panda, Penguin or any other seemingly innocent and cute animal, Google's #1 goal is to reward websites that provide great content. A website with 3-5 pages of content will almost always be more prone to a penalty than one with hundreds of pages of rich, unique & relevant content, especially in competitive niches.

If you have a blog, increase the blogging frequency and make sure you are sharing your content on all your social accounts to increase exposure and traffic. If you are not blogging... where have you been the last 5 years? Get started as soon as possible. Check out this post we published a few months ago to make sure you are blogging the right way and avoid the common mistakes.

Remember, the more quality and useful content you create the more natural links you'll get!

The post 4 Tips to Effectively Clean Up Your Link Profile Post-Penguin appeared first on IronMonk Solutions.

Think about this for a second: when you're starting a new site on a brand new domain, you are essentially starting with NO trust, NO reputation and NO authority, which means that the 1st thing you need to PROVE to Google that you have genuine intentions. If Google detects anything fishy, even if's something that other bigger sites in your industry have done, you risk getting red-flagged right from the get go. Google is known to have a short fuse with new websites!

If you're starting a new website, here are 6 things you should focus on as part of your overall SEO and Online Marketing efforts:

Do Your Keyword Research Diligently

This step hasn't changed. Before or after Penguin, we have been constantly stressing the importance of doing a thorough keyword research before doing anything else.

For a brand new website, your best bet is to focus on highly commercial long-tail keywords as they offer high conversion potential and very good ranking opportunity. Once you rank for those, you can move on to more competitive short-tail keywords.

Also, it is a great idea to later test the effectiveness of these keywords using Google Adwords. If they convert, they're definitely worth ranking organically for. If they don't, consider targeting new ones.

Create Awesome Content for Your Main Pages

Now that you have identified which keywords you want to rank for, the next step (which is also the most important one!) will be to create awesome content that covers those keywords. Awesome content should:

• Spark Human Interest: don't write for robots, write for humans! Provide all the information that a potential customer would be looking for. (e.g. the value in your services/products, positive testimonials, promotions, etc...)
• Facilitate Conversions: awesome content should make it easy for a visitor to become a lead. Whether you want the visitor to fill out a form or place an order, make sure your content naturally leads to the desired action.  If you want maximum conversion rates, don't give the visitor too many options on the landing page!
• Be Well Formatted: readers hate big chunks of non-formatted text, even if it's of "Shakespearean quality". Make your content light and easy to read by incorporating sub-headings, images and/or videos. Make sure your font type, size and color work well with the general design of your site and make your content stand out and easy to read.
• Subtly integrate your keywords: Penguin has penalized millions of sites for over-optimization. Matt Cutts even warned that the next iterations of Penguin will be even more aggressive. This is why you want to be careful about how you integrate your keywords within your content. Be smart about it and use synonyms whenever possible. Use H1, H2 and H3 header tags in a logical manner.

Get a Strong Social Presence

Once your main content pages have been written, you want to set up your main social media accounts. You definitely want to be on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. Depending on your niche, you might also want to consider LinkedIn (if you're into B2B) and YouTube (if you produce videos). Make sure you fill out your Facebook and Google+ pages with as many details as you can and add links back to your site.

Choose your brand name as your username (do NOT use any of your main keywords here). On Facebook, consider creating a nice custom tab that would drive more fans in. (A Giveaway, freebie or a contest of some sort can help here)

We also recommend securing your brand name in the social sphere by using a service like Knowem. This will give your brand more authority and a healthy amount of "whitehat" links.

Start Blogging

Static sites are so... 1998. If you want visitors to come back and Google to give you more respect (and higher rankings!), you have to create new, relevant and useful content on a regular basis. Blogging is one of the best ways to achieve this. Blogging frequency is up to you, but check how often your biggest competitors are blogging and try to be on the same playing field. Check out this article we published a while back on the top blogging mistakes to avoid.

Don't forget to share your posts on all your social pages. If you want your blogging to have more impact, try to provide tips or answers to people's questions within your niche. These kind of blog posts will get you a lot of Likes/Tweets and Shares in the social realm. Also, you will get bonus long-tail traffic from search engines.

Your blogging efforts should also enhance your internal linking structure. On each blog post try to link to other relevant inner pages. If you are blogging about an issue that one of your products solves, make sure you include a link to your product page at the end of the article.

Start a Mailing List

Using a service like AWeber, you can jump into the wonderful world of email marketing in minutes. Put an opt-in box where visitors can see it. To make it even better, offer come kind of incentive to opt-in, such as a free e-book or a chance to win one of your products.

Various studies have shown that Email Marketing is still more efficient than any other form of online marketing. The main reason for that is the "personal" nature of an email. People are much more likely to read an email sent directly to them, rather than a status update or a tweet sent out to a large number of people.

Go Slowly on Link Building

For the first couple of weeks, it's better to avoid link building altogether, unless it's absolutely TOP quality (e.g. a guest post on a highly relevant and authority blog).

If you do get a quality link, always use your brand name as the anchor text and never any of your main keywords.

The post 6 SEO Tips for Brand New Sites appeared first on IronMonk Solutions.

Also, since Google+ and Google Places have merged, the landscape has changed quite a bit.

Here are 5 key tips that you should follow in order to start your Local SEO campaign on the right foot and eventually rank high for all relevant local searches:

Have a SEO-friendly page for EACH location

This step is often overlooked and is actually the most important of them all. It is not enough to simply have a "Locations page" that has a nice map with a list of all your locations. As far as SEO is concerned, each location needs its own page!

Ideally, you want to have your local pages hosted within the main corporate website so they can all benefit from your domain's trust and authority (e.g. www.companyname.com/location/cityname). If you have multiple branches within the same city, you could be structure it like this www.companyname.com/location/cityname/branchname (or /branchnumber).

In most cases, you want all you locations' pages to be hosted under your main site. However if you are planning to have a LOT of content and dynamic features for each location's website, you might want to think about opening up a new subdomain for each location (e.g. location.companyname.com) or a whole new domain altogether (e.g. www.citycompanyname.com). Just keep in mind that this might be more work since you are basically starting from scratch and you will not benefit from the authority/trust/age of your main domain.

Have Unique Content + Exact Address displayed on Each Page

Now that you have your structure figured out, make sure you write unique content for each location's page.

Aim for at least 500 words of content on each page. Add a picture of that specific location if you can with some details of the services/products offered there. Add the name of the manager or contact person there along with the phone number and email and any other information that is relevant to that specific location.

If you run out of ideas on what to write, you could always talk about the city and/or the area where your branch is located. (You just need to feed the search engines something to improve your relevancy score for that city/region)

One more thing, make sure you include the full address of the location on each page along with an embedded Google Map.

Lastly, make sure you are linking to all your locations from your homepage in a natural/intuitive way so that both your users and the search engine robots can find them. (Add the location URLs to the XML sitemap)

Create a Google+ Local Page for Each Location

Google Places is no more. Now you have to create Google+ local page (which is very similar to a Facebook Fan Page) for each location. Again, make sure you select "Local Business" when you create your page, or you will not have all the local options enabled.

Make sure you fill out your Google+ page profile with as many details as you can. Add many photos to your local page too as these will show up right under your Google+ listing when someone searches for your brand name. In fact there is a high chance that your Google+ page is the 1st thing they'll see in the SERPs when they search for your brand name on Google.

Also, you want to add your location's direct web page URL. Your Google+ page will allow you to add multiple links, so feel free to add any other links you deem relevant (Blog, Contact Us, Twitter, Facebook, etc...)

Get More Citations for your Locations

Citations are to Local SEO what inbound links are to Global SEO, in the sense that they improve your local page's authority and trust. Citations are basically listings of your business (name + address + phone) on other local directories such as Yelp, FourSquare, Yellow Pages, etc....

Depending on how competitive your industry is, you might need to create a lot of these! (If you're a plumber in Saratoga, you can probably rank just fine with just 1-2 citations, but if you're an Indian restaurant in New York, roll up your sleeves!). Here is a link to an article from Search Engine Land where you can find a list of websites where you can get citations from: http://searchengineland.com/top-50-citation-sources-for-uk-us-local-businesses-104938

Make sure you get citations from websites that are relevant to your niche + physical location. Each country has their own local business directories that you can get citations from. Also, make sure you use the exact same business name and address on ALL sites, as Google will be looking to match the details you provided on your Google+ page.

Encourage Your Satisfied Clients to Leave Reviews

Having a few reviews for each location will definitely help your SEO efforts as it is one of the factors that the Google algorithm will look at.

Whenever possible, ask your satisfied clients to leave positive reviews on either Google or any citation website that they like to use.

You don't need to overdo this. Just look at your competitors on Google (c.f. all the ones that rank on the 1st page for your main keywords) and see how many reviews they have [on average]. Try to get in the same playing field. If your weakest competitor has 30 reviews and you have only 2, that's not good.

The post 5 Local SEO Tips for Businesses with Multiple Locations appeared first on IronMonk Solutions.

While there is no magic formula that will work for all types of businesses, there are certain techniques that can bring you positive results if you apply them properly. Here are 3 tips that will help you improve your Facebook fan page interaction level, engagement and overall ROI...

Acquire More Fans With Facebook Ad Campaigns

Facebook Ads is the best way to get your brand/message in front of your target audience. While this does not always apply to B2Bs, it certainly applies to most B2Cs. For optimal results, connect your ad campaign to a custom landing page on your fan page. The landing page should have some kind of incentive to become a fan (perhaps a discount code? A chance to win something? A free ebook... you decide!).

Another great way to use Facebook Ads is to launch Sponsored Stories targeting your fans' friends. These types of ads get the highest CTR because people see a message telling them that one of their friends also likes this page (e.g. "John Smith likes this page"). When our friends like something, it picks our curiosity and we want to know more about it. (Human Nature 101)

Use Facebook's New Promoted Posts Feature

It is important to understand that most status updates will reach only 10% to 30% of your fanbase (at best). This is because people log on Facebook at different times, and some of them don't login for a few days, which means they will probably miss your post.

Up till a few days ago, there was no way to make sure your important posts get seen by 50%+ of your fans. The problem is now solved as Facebook recently launched the Promoted Posts feature for fan pages. You can now pay a flat fee (starting at $5) to make sure your post reach a certain percentage of your fans. This is a truly awesome feature that you should use to make sure your important posts get seen. (e.g. company updates, new product announcements, contests, etc...)

However, be careful not to use this feature too much or it might backfire against you. Remember that people log on Facebook to see their friends' updates. Businesses are "tolerated", as long as they don't come across as being too "spammy" or self-promotional.

Test & Tweak!

This is probably the most important tip. As we said earlier, there is no secret formula that can guarantee great results for everybody. It is all about A/B testing. When launching a Facebook ad, try rotating different images, body texts, targeting options and see how many actions (Page Likes, Clicks) you're getting for your money.

Also, it is important to figure out how much you're willing to pay for a targeted fan. 50 cents? A dollar? $5? $20? How much is a quality fan worth to you? Once you figure that out, make sure you try different ad variations until you find the one that is giving you quality fans within your price range.

Lastly, don't be afraid to try new things, even if they are on the wild side! It might work. If it doesn't, you'll certainly learn something from it and launch a better ad next time!

The post Tips to Improve Your Business Exposure on Facebook appeared first on IronMonk Solutions.

Post Relevant Images, Videos or Infographics

Articles are great, but if that's all you're sharing on your fan page, your fans will get bored. It has been proven that images/videos/infographics generate more engagement in the social sphere. (engagement = comments, likes, shares)

If you don't have any images/videos of your own, consider producing some. If you don't have the budget nor the expertise to do this, you can always go on websites like Reddit and search for popular images within your industry, then post them on your page. This will definitely get you a couple of Likes & Shares. You can also search on YouTube, Vimeo or Dailymotion for some videos with viral potential and share them with your fans.

There is a lot of multimedia content out there that you can use to improve your brand awareness and show your fans that you are worth "Liking". You can also invite them to share their own multimedia content for an even better engagement level.

Launch Occasional Contests or Giveaways

The sad truth is: People on Facebook don't usually "Like" brand pages unless they feel like there is something to win out of it.

How do you think brands like GAP, Starbucks or Coca Cola acquired hundreds of thousands of fans? Short Answer: By giving away stuff! Remember, Facebook is a social network for friends to keep in touch with each other. Businesses are only "tolerated", for as long as they provide an added value that people can't get from just going to their website.

That said, remember to reward your fans on a regular basis and make them feel like they're part of an "exclusive club". Once in a while (at least once a month) launch a contest, quizz or giveaway on your page. If you can do it once or twice a week, it's even better! The prize could be a discount code, a free product or a gift certificate. Doing this will get your fans to always be aware of your posts, as they will constantly be waiting for you to launch a new contest. This strategy minimize "Unlikes" and will improve your engagement score guaranteed.

While this strategy doesn't apply to any type of business (it's hard to give away products or discount codes if you're a real estate agent or insurance broker!) it is certainly a great fit for online retailers and for anybody selling physical products at a low/medium price point.

Don't be Too Self-Promotional

Your fans are willing to look at your content and read your blog posts for as long as they feel like you're not trying to push your marketing message down their throats. If they ever feel that way, you can be guarantteed that one of these 2 things will happen:

• They will "Unsubcribe from your feed" (bad!)
• They will "Unlike" your fan page (very bad!)

As we pointed out earlier, Facebook is not meant for businesses like LinkedIn. People don't log in on Facebook expecting to see your company's latest hirings. They want to see what their friends are up to and maybe see a few funny images or videos that will help them kill their boredom. If once in a while they see one of your blog posts or one of your latest product announcements, that's fine, but remember to not flood their news feed with your content.

Focus on sharing content that is interesting and adds value. It doesn't always have to be from your own site. Sites like Digg, Reddit and YouTube can help you find tons of great content you can share.

The post 3 Tips to Give Some Life to Your Fan Page appeared first on IronMonk Solutions.