Over the past few years, many people have asked me how I maintain such good local search rankings on the Internet. This post explains what I’ve done and continue to do, letting you know exactly what you can do to promote your business and “get found” on the Web.
Step One: Help the search engines find your company!
Simple Search Engine Optimization (SEO): First of all, you need to think like a prospect looking for your company. What words or phrases would they use to find you? (Hint: it may NOT be your company name.) Incorporate those keywords and keyword phrases into your web content. Include them in your page titles, meta descriptions and throughout the content on your page, in both the headings and paragraph text. Overkill is not rewarded; justified use of your keywords is.
Here is a site that reviews 3 different keyword sites to help you choose the keywords and keyword phrases that the majority of prospects are using to find your services and products: http://searchengineland.com/threefree-keyword-tool-reviews-126217
Create a short company/services description (approximately 160 characters and spaces) and a long company/services description for listing your company on the major search engines and online business directories to be used with those listed below. The following are examples of my company’s short and long business descriptions:
Short:
We can help you look more professional than your competition, and we’ll double or triple your business using our skills in graphic design, web design, and social media.
Long:
Will’s goal is to help clients double and triple their business by using his skills in advertising, marketing communications, graphic design, web design, and social media. Will avoids trendy design that looks dated in a couple of years and instead strives to create work that is clean, corporate, and still looks fresh and relevant, even after 10 or 15 years.
One of the nicest comments ever made by a client came from William Dougherty, VP Marketing for Iris Diagnostics, Inc.: “Over my 30 plus years in marketing, I’ve only met 1 or 2 other firms that even come close to the quality, service and pricing that Will Sherwood delivers on behalf of this company.”
Will’s office is in Santa Clarita, CA (in the greater Los Angeles area), He’s been working in the field for over 30 years, since he was 15 years old, running a hand-feed letterpress, designing tickets and cards in his family’s print shop. And, after all these years he still loves creating an inspired design solution.
Over the years, he has garnered a large number of creativity awards. His work is in the Library of Congress permanent collection, and he’s received the Federal Design Excellence Award, the highest award given by the National Endowment for the Arts. <http://thesherwoodgroup.com/recognition/>
Be sure to include these selections from the list at this link: http://bit.ly/1zk0EJa It includes 50 Business Directories For Local Marketing. (Just click on any name at the site and you’ll be directed to their signup page). These all feed into the Google, Bing and Yahoo search engines:
1. Google
2. Bing
3. Yahoo!
4. Yelp
5. Merchant Circle
7. YellowPages.com
9. Whitepages
10. Supermedia
11. Yellowbook
12. CitySearch
Step Two: Optimize and enhance your website:
Update your website content regularly to help keep your site at the top the search pages. Posting regular (we suggest weekly) blog posts is a great way to add new content (and will help promote your “go-to expert” status!). “News” pages, case studies, and whitepapers are other good ways to both improve search rankings and promote your site.
Optimize images and videos on your site so they load quickly and be sure to include alt tag descriptions that incorporate your keywords. Images should be clickable to link directly to the page related to the image or to your website homepage (i.e. a blog post or contact page).
Social Media platforms you use (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, or Google+) should include a link to your site in your profile (be sure to include the actual name of your website in your LinkedIn profile instead of the “Company Website” placeholder).
Reward visitors to your website. Offer free content when they register on your website. (You can also collect email addresses for your constantcontact.com or mailchimp.com promotional monthly newsletters).
Include your web address on all marketing Materials. These include printed handouts, business cards, brochures and letterheads.
When making a presentation — whether in person or on the web, your web address should appear on each slide. Consider this as your personal continuous brand reinforcement.
Incorporate inbound links in your guest blog posts and email newsletters that will refer readers directly to the appropriate content on your website (home page or inside page).
Extend an invitation to visit your website at every opportunity (including a link to your site in your email signature) — more visitors equals a greater understanding of your company offerings which in turn, can translate into more business.
Measure visitor behavior. Google Analytics (using a simple code you embed on each page) will give you statistics on how much traffic you get and from where (global location and browser), how long people are staying (or not) on your site and which pages they have visited. This feedback should help you decide what’s working and what’s not. Here’s a link to a “how to” video:
Step Three: Create a personal and business presence on social media.
Join Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter and completely fill out your business profiles on each (be sure to include a professional head shot of yourself). Set your preferences for “everyone” instead of “friends” or “friends of friends.”
Create business pages on these popular social media sites:
How to create a LinkedIn business page:
How to create a Google+ business page:
How to create a Facebook business page:
Join groups on Facebook where your prospects most likely are. (You may join up to 6,000.) Access groups by typing a key word (circled below) in the search bar: 
Join groups on LinkedIn where your prospects most likely are. (You may join up to 50.) Find groups by typing a key word (circled below) in the search bar:
For Twitter, to help you manage your followers, use http://justunfollow.com to easily follow and unfollow people.
Step Four: Promote your business on social media.
Whenever you receive an email stating the people have liked/followed you, or you receive connection requests for folks, send them a note through FB, LI, Twitter, or Google+ like this:
Thank you for adding me as a friend on (Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter)… It’s always a pleasure to connect with colleagues, friends and family.
If you have a moment, would you “Like” my Social networking pages too? I’d really appreciate it, and will return the favor if you let me know.
Facebook: http://facebook.com/TheSherwoodGroup
Google +: https://plus.google.com/+TheSherwoodGroupSantaClarita/posts
LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/S4vTqP
Twitter: http://twitter.com/willsherwood
Best regards,
(Your Name)
BTW: If you’re interested in “work smart” business success ideas and tips, check out my blog: http://thesherwoodgroup.com/blog or subscribe to my monthly email of best of the best tips: http://bit.ly/1hg39Rd (Be sure to include complete URLs starting with http://)
Within all your LinkedIn and Facebook groups, and on your Google+ Pages, post this discussion topic:
Do you want more Facebook likes? Post yours here:
“Like” my Social networking pages and I’ll return the favor:
Facebook: http://facebook.com/TheSherwoodGroup
Google +: https://plus.google.com/+TheSherwoodGroupSantaClarita/posts
LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/S4vTqP
Twitter: http://twitter.com/willsherwood
Whenever someone posts their link, go to their Facebook business page and post something like this:
Hello from LinkedIn,
Just a note to let you know that I’ve “Liked” your Facebook page. If you have a moment, would you “Like” my social networking business pages? I’d really appreciate it, and will return the favor if you send me the links to yours.
Facebook: http://facebook.com/TheSherwoodGroup
Google +: https://plus.google.com/+TheSherwoodGroupSantaClarita/posts
LinkedIn: http://linkd.in/S4vTqP
Twitter: http://twitter.com/willsherwood
Best regards,
Will Sherwood
BTW: If you’re interested in “work smart” business success ideas and tips, check out my blog: http://thesherwoodgroup.com/blog or subscribe to my monthly email of best of the best tips: http://bit.ly/1hg39Rd
Step Five: Ask colleagues to post testimonies.
Develop several sample recommendations that you can use to ask all your friends to post on Yelp, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn. (These sites are the most effective.)
It’s best to write a unique recommendation for each client and send it to them with a request that they edit it to suit their experience. Here are some samples that others and myself have written:
Will Sherwood of The Sherwood Group (in Santa Clarita, CA, just outside of Los Angeles) is a top-notch award winning graphic design and website design guru. He thinks out-of-the-box, and always comes up with beautiful, eye-catching, and winning designs! I loved working with him.
The graphic and web design projects Will Sherwood of The Sherwood Group (in Santa Clarita, CA, just outside of Los Angeles) completed for us helped our company go from $20 million to $52 million per year in revenue within 3 years.
The brochure created by Will Sherwood of The Sherwood Group (in Santa Clarita, CA, just outside of Los Angeles) generated $43 million in new business within 10 weeks, and virtually overloaded our loan department.
The promotional advertising and strategic branding campaign Will Sherwood of The Sherwood Group (in Santa Clarita, CA, just outside of Los Angeles) created for our Orcolite lenses helped us go from #38 in our marketplace to #4 within only 9 months.
Throughout my 30 plus years in marketing, I’ve only come across 1 or 2 companies that even come close to Will Sherwood of The Sherwood Group (in Santa Clarita, CA, just outside of Los Angeles) when it comes to results when we talk about graphic and website design creativity, service and price.
Step Six: Blog your way to page one on search engines.
Start Blogging Weekly on topics of interest to your target market of prospects. You can do one of two things:
Write your own
OR
Have Blogmutt write 4/month ($89.00/month)
When you create a blog post be sure to include an appropriate image (posts with images get about 50% more the engagement). Check out these sites for reasonably priced (a couple of dollars per image) stock photo sites: http://123rf.com or http://istockphoto.com
Note: greater than 90% of your posts should be helpful info and less than 10% sales oriented.
Pacing: Once you have a finalized blog post, and are familiar with the processes discussed here, it should take you about 30-45 minutes to accomplish items 11-14 below.
Repost your entire blog content and image on your personal LinkedIn page. Access the blog posting page (the Pulse section of LinkedIn) by clicking on the pencil (circled below):
Post a title, short description, and link to all groups on Facebook and on your Google+ personal and business pages. Here’s a sample abbreviated title, description and link for this purpose:
How to Build an Online Course That Sells. . . .
Whether you have a budding online business or are a newbie looking to share knowledge on a particular subject to the masses, teaching an online course is the perfect way to accomplish your objective. Read more. . . .
http://thesherwoodgroup.com/business-education/build-online-course-sells/
Post a different question with different description (than the description on your blog page) to your LinkedIn groups. 1) A question indicates discussion whereas a statement might be perceived as spam, and 2) using a different description will keep LinkedIn from trashing your post before anyone sees it. Here’s a sample using the same description and link as above:
What suggestions could you add for building an online course that sells?
Whether you have a budding online business or are a newbie looking to share knowledge on a particular subject to the masses, teaching an online course is the perfect way to accomplish your objective. Read more. . . .
http://thesherwoodgroup.com/business-education/build-online-course-sells/
Twitter: Post the link and title (only) of your post WITH a photo. (Tweets with a photo get 50% more engagement.) Here’s a sample. Note that the link is first, followed by the title:
Step Seven: Promote your blog posts on social media.
After you’ve been posting discussions in your LinkedIn and Facebook groups, you’ll start receiving responses. When this happens, ask them to repost their comments on your blog.
Here’s a sample text to request them to do that:
Hello Nickolas,
Thank you for your thoughtful comment in the (add group name here) group here on LinkedIn. Would you repost your comment at the blog so that others can read what you’ve said too? (It’s also to help add discussion points for others visiting the blog.)
If so, here’s the link:
http://thesherwoodgroup.com/business-education/business-really-need-a-website/
And for your convenience, here’s what you posted:
There are many Facebook alternatives that are popping up around the world, saying they are different because they don’t use advertising or don’t violate privacy. But I think those startups are missing the point. People actually like advertisements and the connection with brands. The magazine industry has proven that over and over again….
A Final Note:
So that your company can more easily “get found” on the web, Will Sherwood, CEO of The Sherwood Group, offers a 4 hour phone consultation package for $900.00 discounted to $750.00 when paid in advance.
For your copy of the free report from which this post was created, contact The Sherwood Group, Graphic Design & Website Design with your email address.
If you enjoyed this post, you may also want to check out these others:
5 Social Networks to Watch in 2015
How to Avoid Wasting Time with Facebook and E-mail
15 Website Mistakes You Should Avoid (Part 1)
Four Clients You Should Fire Immediately
How To Claim Your Google Local Business Listing
Tips for Working at Home (Part 1)
Are You Charging Enough for Your Services?
How to Make Social Media Marketing Work for Your Business
Is There Still Gold in Cold Calling
The Sherwood Group, Graphic Design & Website Design: The Sherwood Group has over 30 years of experience working with all sorts of companies, small and large. Our clients range from entrepreneurs to Fortune 500 firms, in nearly every business sector, from across the street to around the world (and yes, even Europe, China, and South America). Our goal is to create advertising, graphic design, website design, and marketing communication that still looks fresh and relevant 10-15 years later. Our mission is to stir your imagination and leave your competition shaken and wondering, Now what do we do?” We are located in Santa Clarita, California, just outside Los Angeles, California.
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