This sounds great but how do I use this to promote my business or help with Local SEO? Pinterest is not a resource for all industries. Pinterest can best be leveraged for brands and industries that are visually appealing, restaurants, bakeries, retail, home decor and remodeling for example. To get the benefits of pintrest you will want to have pictures and content that is visually appealing and can inspire people. With that it is a great way to get noticed, build advocacy for your brand or business, and build links. One of the many great features of Pinterest for SEO is the fact that they do not use No Follow links. This can help with rankings when Pinterest is used properly.

When setting up your profile it is important to make your company profile public. Put effort into your about description, use keywords and make it interesting to read. Add links to your website, Twitter and Facebook pages to your Pinterest profile.  When creating your boards, make a board for your geographic location, make sure to use the city name in the title of your board,  and a board for your product or services. Post interesting pictures of landmarks in your city and your storefront of your business. Begin following other Pinterest users that have areas of interest similar to yours.  When “pinning” photos to your boards, only select visually appealing photos. When adding pictures to your geographic location board, use descriptive keywords for the name. Design an infographic for your business to promote on Pinterest.

You will also want to promote your Pinterest profile. Add the Pinterest logo to your website with your other social media logos and links. Get a “pin it” button placed on your products page or services page to encourage website visitors to pin your products creating links to your site. Get your employees on board by suggesting they create Pinterest profiles and encourage them to promote your company boards as well as promote their knowledge and expertise in the industry.

Happy Pinning!

1. Google + will play a major role in SEO.

For Marketers this will have an unequivocal effect  for marketers that do SEO and Social Media successfully. Use of Google’s social network will be able to tie rankings factors and social media together like never before, albeit decreasing manipulation and spam.

2. SEO and Social Media will depend upon each other.

Successful SEO campaigns with out social media will become part of the past. Social Media factors are becoming more prevalent in the search engines ranking algorithms but more importantly Social Media is the primary way people are sharing and discovering information.

3. Google will crack down on devious link spam.

I predict Google will roll out a panda-esque attack on link spam in the coming year from their search quality team. We will begin to see Google’s algorithm depreciate the value of less respectable links to give users more quality search results.

4. Pintrest.com will be the next social network to watch for attracting new customers.

I believe this new social network has some great potential for marketers. People use Pintrest to find inspiration for their purchasing decisions. Finding a way to leverage this to share information about your business and attract potential customers will be beneficial to many business, small and large.

5. Search Advertising will become more prevalent.  

We will be seeing more and more emphasis on paid search ads in Google. Which will push organic results further down the page. The most shocking new feature is Google’s capability to pre-populate a logged in users email into a submit form with in a PPC ad. These types of ad’s are seldom but we predict we will be seeing more of them in the coming year.

Ok we are over the elves, reindeer’s & sleighs. Now its time to look ahead to 2012 Internet Marketing Trends.

More specifically how will the current internet marketing trends effect your business in 2012.  What steps can you take to get ahead of the competition and more importantly how can these internet marketing trends improve your current user experience.

Getting Ahead of the Competition

With todays current Local Internet Landscape the opportunities seem plentiful but there are many pitfalls to look out for as well.  Lets take a look at some of the exiting opportunities businesses have to separate themselves from the competition and individualize there local web presence.

Web Design 2.0 if you do not have an updated web design in the last 24 months it will be a good idea to do that in 2012.  A survey done by web visible indicates that 84% of people surveyed believe the quality of a website directly relates to the quality of a business.  Aspects of a website clients are interested in are, professional design, easy navigation to guide a users experience, interactive media like video feeds & links to your social media pages, and don’t forget to make an offer it is the easiest way for your customers to go from shopping to buying from you.

Social Media Integration was a high trend in 2011 and I believe it will remain as important if not even more important.  As business owners have begun to realize the importance of social media many have still not taken the time to integrate there clients experience through the social channels.  First of all,  business today should have a custom welcome page on Facebook that describes the social experience that you are trying to create.  If it is to be highly informative, lets say for an accountant, continuing to update your client base on important dates as well as need to know changes would be highly successful.  It can also be offer driven, “like us on Facebook and win a chance at a free gift card to your restaurant of choice.  I would say 2011 was big for businesses getting on Facebook, but 2012 will be dedicated to figuring out how to use it for your business.

Interactive Media is becoming larger and larger and in 2012 the big have for local businesses will be to a custom Youtube channel with videos that link to and from your websites.  Good video ideas should be based around helping your client base, such as how to’s that describe how to get the most out of your services.

The big pitfall to look out for in 2012.  Mobile marketing for local businesses.  I believe this will be a big trend in 2013, however in 2012 there still are questions on how to target mobile local clients.  Stay tuned as this technology develops I believe it will become more important to business owners than the actual local web is.  What you can do with mobile in the meantime is get a mobile website.  A mobile website is designed to create an easy user navigation that fits in their mobile browsers.  This will certainly increase your clients user experience.  However as far as truly successful mobile marketing strategies go they are in development and your clients will determine which platforms are successful by their usage.  If you are going to invest in mobile strategies in 2012 I would recommend stating with a low budget until this technology if proven by trackable results.

Happy New Year to all.  Next Month I will dive into improving your clients user experiences.

Decide which listing you want to keep in your account, the listing you currently have control of or the duplicate listing you have discovered. In most cases the advised option is to keep the listing you currently have control of and have been optimizing. However there are a few instances in which you will want to use the duplicate listing. Perform a local search within Google Places for your company name and see which business listing Google places first.  The first matching listing is the stronger source for your business.  Once you have decided make sure that you have made this listing 100% complete with descriptions, photos, business hours, categories, additional details and offers. This is also referred to as the enhanced content. If using the listing you currently have control over that should all be done already. Next find the duplicate listing or listings, click on owner verified, log in with the google account you have your current listing in, then begin claiming this listing. Remove any enhanced content that is present in the listing. The only fields that should have information present are the required fields with asterisks, Business name, telephone number, and address. Make sure this information matches the listing you will be keeping exactly. Now submit these changes and verify as necessary by phone or postcard.

Leave the listings alone for the next few weeks until the analytics on the impressions and actions are the exact same, this indicates the listings have synched and become 1 listing.  To take that 1 extra step to verify they have synched, publish an update from one listings dashboard, then view both listings on google to verify of the update is present on both. Repeat this step with the other listing. Once you are certain the listings have synched you will delete the duplicate listing. Select the option “remove this listing from my Local Business Center Account”.

How is a local locksmith, or roofer, or plumber suposed to know what to do.  The old days of calling your yellow pages company for a full page ad are over.  Local Businesses today need a strategic marketing plan based solely around their internet web presence in their local market.  These plans should be a collaboration between local business owner & their personal Internet Marketing Consultant who can bridge the gap in technology and prescribe an approach that fits their unique company vision.

Local Business owners are being bombarded every day with every wild and crazy gimmick that is new on the internet.  It is the job of a true Internet Marketing Consultent to bridge the gap for Local Business Owners so their representation on line matches their businesses philosophy.

Does the business operate all of their different services from the same location? Use the same phone number? Currently market multiple services together? If the answer is yes to these questions 1 listing is the correct choice. If you really want to use 2 separate listings they must become separate entities. You will need 2 or more office locations ( different addresses), different phone numbers, different business names and different ad’s online and in print. To do that is a huge investment or time and resources. It also will result in the need for multiple online marketing campaigns, resulting in twice the effort and budget needed. Not to mention you take the risk of google merging your separate listings together into one or worse both listings becoming “not supported”.

When the reality is you are one business with 2 different services, you will be seen as 1 business on google and 1 single google places listing is your best bet. This approach will ensure you are marketing your business the correct way in the eyes of Google.

With your Google + for business page you can manage your circles to get the best messages and news out to all types of customers or clients depending on what that person prefers to know about your business.  Keep all your customers up to date on promotions, special offers, new products and news related to your industry.

Hangouts are a fantastic way to promote your business with your customers. Use a hangout for a new product demonstration. Or use it to educate your customers on other services you offer that would benefit them.

Get the word out by adding the Google +1 badge to your website if you have not done so already. Encourage your customers and website visitors to +1 your website.

If you are advertising on the Google Display network you can now add a +1 button to you display ads allowing you to run socially-enabled campaigns for the first time!

The new grey pin 7 pack will take up more vertical space on your computer screen. Google keeps pushing to move organic results further down the page putting a greater focus on places listings. Which makes it that much more crucial to optimize your google  places listing. The map will now take on a rectangular shape which will display the same geographical area but will also increase the visible geographic area as you make your screen larger. The pins will all appear grey until you mouse over the listing making the pin red as well as revealing the the right of the listing a gray rectangular box with 2 right arrows that once you mouse over will provide you with an overview of the business.

Owner Verified listings will be the new shinning stars in the updated Google Places. The more information provided in your listing the more that google can scrape from the places listing for their algorithm generated snippet of your business including a thumbnail of your home page, 5 photos, reviews, hours of service etc. The hidden places content is coming to surface in many results. However with the new changes it is harder to get to the actual places page as you are getting directed towards the website.

The new changes are also putting a new focus on adwords. The rectangular map allows 20% to 25% more ad’s to be displayed on the right hand side, making use of that precious space above the fold. There is also a differentiation on the map for adwords express ad’s the map now displays a blue marker for any adwords express ad that is shown on that page, giving it a definitive distinction between all the red markers on the map.

Old 7 Pack Display

New 7 Pack Display After The Update

New Results With The Snippet Preview of Business

Adword's Express Blue Pin Distinction

We are waiting for what is to come next and still researching the new look. User feedback is also a new addition that has been brought back from the past. Google wants user feedback to get through the mess. Review spam filters are also on the horizon we believe from our research. Are we going to see something similar to Yelp or will Google do something different.