Don’t pick your web designer by pining the tail on a donkey. If you run a local-based business, hire a firm that designs local-based websites. This is a miles apart from designing national or global-focused sites.

Your website is much more than 50% the picture in terms of your ability to compete, rank and serve. Be prepared to make a serious investment in an excellent, usable, optimized website if you want to see great results.

Here at AD Online, we do just that, specialise in local-based business. The initial investment isn’t even that much since we have reduced our prices for fantastic customised wordpress websites. The real key is once you have your website up and running, gaining exposure to your target market and being ‘seen’ by the search engines in your local market. And yes we can help with that too… that’s the bit where a serious investment is required for serious results.

Chose a website designer based on your business, not based on pot luck! is a post from: AD Online Media - Custom Designed Search Engine Friendly Websites

For a small business, good social media practices create a personal connection with your clients.  Giving free advice or tips, posting special offers, responding to questions or concerns are all greats way to engage with your audience while building up credibility and branding.

Here are a few tips for using social media:

1. Build Your Fan Base — Facebook is a great first step to building a networked fan base. Why do you need one? Market research shows that 60% of Facebook users are more likely to recommend a brand they’ve “liked.” And, with more than 500 million users, “60% of Facebook users” is a lot of people.
2. Give Voice to the Customers — Social media makes it easy for everyone to complain — and for those complaints to go instantly global. However, when you quickly turn a complaint into a satisfactory resolution, that’s also done on the worldwide stage. Twitter, in particular, has transformed the ability to put your commitment to your customers front and center.
3. Go Local — Geolocation apps are becoming increasingly popular as the smart-phone revolution continues. For businesses with a local presence, the ability to reach out to willing consumers with spur-of-the-moment deals is a cheap, friendly, high-ROI gift from the business-development gods.

Build your reputation with Social Media is a post from: AD Online Media - Custom Designed Search Engine Friendly Websites

Google has recently released Places Search. Websites that are listed in Google Places (formerly Google Local/Google Maps) are now listed as the top search results for local searches:

If you offer your products or services in a particular area, it is very important that your website is listed in Google Places.

How to optimize your Google Places listing

How your website is listed in Google Places depends on several things. For example, cafes in Randwick are listed differently than Hyundai Dealers in Brookvale. The location of your business, the industry that you’re in and the keywords that you are targeting and other things influence your listing in Google Places.

Ranking element 1: your address

If you want to get high rankings for keywords that are related to a particular city/town then your business should be located in that city. If you want to be found for local searches in Sydney then your business must have a physical address in Sydney.

Ranking element 2: your business category

You must make sure that your business is listed in the correct category in Google Places. If you sell Tiles then your website should not be listed in the Cars category. You can specify the correct category when you submit your website to Google Places.

Ranking element 3: keywords in your business name

If your business name contains the keywords for which you want to be found then you increase your chance of getting listed in the Google Places results on Google’s first result page. If you have an Art studio, it will help your rankings for the keyword “Art Studio” if your business name is “Jane’s Art Studio”.

Ranking element 4: citations of your business

Citations (also called “web references”) are mentions of your business name and address on other web pages, even if these web pages do not link to your website.

For example, a yellow pages directory or the local chamber of commerce might list your business without linking to your website. The more citations your business has, the more likely it is that it will be listed for local searches. Citations have a similar effect on local searches as backlinks have on regular website listings.

Try to get your website address listed on as many websites as possible to show Google that your business is real.

Ranking element 5: you should have positive reviews

Google Places is basically a recommendation search engine. It recommends local restaurants, electricians, hotels, etc. in the search results. If the recommended businesses offer poor products and poor services then people wouldn’t continue to use Google Places.

Positive reviews and ratings help Google to gain more confidence in your company. The more positive reviews your company has, the better. Encourage your customers to write a positive review if they are satisfied with your products and services.

Ranking element 6: proximity to the searched location

If your business is located near to the searched location then it is more likely that it will be displayed in the search results. If you have a hotel near the Museum of Technology then it’s likely that Google will show your Google Places listing for search terms such as “hotels near Museum of Technology”.

Get Listed in Google Places is a post from: AD Online Media - Custom Designed Search Engine Friendly Websites

Social media is becoming an essential part of the marketing mix for brands, big and small.

Companies are increasingly using social media to monitor conversations about their products, competitors and engaging with their customers to build strong relationships.

According to Forrester Research’s forecast, social media marketing will grow at an annual rate of 34% that is faster than any other form of online marketing and double the average growth rate of 17% for all online mediums.

The rise of Social Media is a post from: AD Online Media - Custom Designed Search Engine Friendly Websites

Once your website is up and running, or even if you have an existing site, it is highly advisable to have your email database integrated with your website. If these 2 talk to each other, then you have a very powerful business tool.

Autoresponders

Having an Autoresponder is a very good way to instantly improve your on-line marketing presence and interaction with your target audience. Essentially an autoresponder is an organised email management system with powerful functionality to sent emails to your audience at different stages of the information or buying process. They are an excellent way to send newsletters, reports, sales messages, video training etc. with sequential follow up emails. They can send electronic information over a series of days or months.

As the word suggest, an ‘autoresponder’ responds on autopilot without you needing to be there. You set it up to send messages and reply to messages automatically. It’s great leverage of your time and keeps you in touch with your customer base.

Other benefits include:

• High deliverability – when you send emails you want to make sure they get delivered, more delivered emails means more chances of interaction and sales with your target audience
• Excellent reporting capabilities, including tracking your email campaigns to see who opens them and who clicks on your links
• You can Integrate your messages with your social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter etc.

We recommend Aweber as our preferred autoresponder. They are highly effective, cost efficient and we know how to use their codes inside out.

Visit Aweber

Email Marketing is a post from: AD Online Media - Custom Designed Search Engine Friendly Websites

There is no denying the Internet has been, and continues to influence and evoke change in our lives. Particularly the way we do business. People are turning to the internet in droves for almost everything. Our everyday needs are satisfied through online shopping aswell our major purchases such as houses, cars, whitegoods, etc. The internet has taken over as the first source for a solution to just about anything!

This graph clearly illustrates the influence of the internet within Australia alone compared to the rest of the world. A whopping 70.8% were recorded in 2008 as a percentage of users of the population. As at 2010, this has increased to almost 80%.

Australia v the World online is a post from: AD Online Media - Custom Designed Search Engine Friendly Websites