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Internet Marketing

Businesses and Search Directories

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Here are some helpful tips for new or existing businesses seeking listing advice on search directories. When it comes to listing your business to multiple search directories, a useful tip that not many people know about is that you can change them manually which is free. Usually, in each directory, there is a link or button that allows you to claim the listing. While there, you can edit the information to match your business perfectly.

Although automatic listings services are available, some companies do not let you keep the updates they provide once you stop using their services on a monthly basis. Even then, automatic listing services do not always cover every single directory which you would still have to edit yourself. The advantage of hiring a marketing agency instead allows you to control your budget while keeping the updates the agency has done for your business. Remember, the improper information listed about your company on search directories could greatly affect the number of visits.

Extend Reach Through Instagram Hashtags

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A majority of businesses today are shifting towards social media to attract new potential customers. Ever wonder why you are not receiving the desired likes or followers you deserve? Hashtags on Instagram posts are one of the easiest ways to engage with customers and ensure brand loyalty.

By using hashtags, it allows you to be discoverable by anyone using the app while extending your potential reach. Another advantage is that it allows you to link events and promotions specifically through your business name.

Now that you understand all the benefits of hashtagging in Instagram, the next step is to see what types of Instagram Hashtags are out there. Usually successful Instagram pages use hashtags that are simple yet explain what the post is all about. Keep in mind that sometimes it is better to use common keywords such as “food” for example because they are easier to find.

Just remember, hashtags only benefit your business rather than hurt it as long as it has context with your page and posts. Lastly, hashtagging is not only limited to Instagram but is also on other social media platforms as well such as Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and Tumblr. What are you waiting for, start incorporating hashtags into your Instagram page now and gain the exposure you need!

Adapting Your Business Marketing Tactics for Facebook’s Algorithm Change

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Facebook has been making companies that rely on Facebook Organic Reach to go crazy so far in 2018! In late 2017, Facebook tested a new algorithm change that had oversea businesses in shock. In pre-selected international markets, the algorithm change began to promote posts from actual people – instead of businesses. Marketers were stunned and left wondering how they could possibly reach their audience again on their most lucrative platforms out there. Remember, the fastest growing segment on Facebook is people over 40 years of age who are very business friendly.

In the U.S., the change became permanent in January – the “people over pages” algorithm update was released to everyone. And the effect was immediate.  Businesses were hit hard and their organic reach went from 6 digits to less than a few hundred!

If you read the news and listen to the experts, there have been plenty of research that supports this change. But what really matters RIGHT THIS MINUTE is: How can you reach your Facebook audience again after this update? No doubt, it is going to be a challenge that we all have to adapt towards. In order to do so, businesses need to create more quality content that engages conversation amongst users while being involved with Facebook groups. Here are a few ways my business is adapting to the new algorithm. RG Pacific creates new and attractive content on business pages that link to the company’s website while ensuring that users have a chance to comment and convey their ideas in the post.

Facebook Announces New Measurement Tools for Marketers

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Facebook is introducing new methods of ‘people based measurement’ that will help marketers see how effective cross-channel campaigns are, related to online and offline return on investment. On September 21st the social media channel announced that it would be partnering with the companies: Nielsen Catalina Solutions, Oracle Data Cloud, Neustar MarketShare and Visual IQ. This collaboration between Facebook and third parties would allow brands to have more accurate results. For example with Nielsen Catalina, brands will be able to learn how a campaign affected the offline purchases by connecting purchasing data from ads on Facebook and Instagram. The partnerships with Oracle Data Cloud would allow Datalogix to reach Facebook’s Lift API and examine how likely people are to purchase products if they have or have not seen an ad. The programs of Visual IQ and Neustar would allow brands to measure the ad impressions on consumers. The changes that Facebook is creating are allowing social media to become more brand friendly by creating new techniques to reach consumers and measuring these methods. This demonstrates how social media is becoming a greater influence between brands and consumers.

 

To access and read the full article from AdWeek click here.

Should You Be Using Pay-Per-Click Advertising?

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Pay-per-click advertising is a form of advertisement used to direct traffic to websites, and involves the advertiser paying the publisher for every click on the ad. Often times this form of advertisement is used with search engines and involves advertisers bidding on the keywords they want. An example of this can be seen with Google AdWords.

Using pay-per-click advertising provides an assortment of benefits. As opposed to paying for an advertisement in a newspaper and not knowing whether or not your target market is exposed to the ad, using a pay-per-click will allow you to specifically reach your target customer and bring them directly to your website. Additionally, using pay-per-click advertising provides measurable and testable results. When launching an ad you can track how many people click on your ad and what they do once they click it. This provides a whole new level of information as opposed to something like a newspaper ad where you can’t compile any information from it. Another benefit with pay-per-click advertising is the simple fact that it is cost efficient. With these ads you are paying for every click so there isn’t much wasted money and you can accurately track your campaign results and return on investment.

However, what is important with pay per click advertising is making sure you are maximizing your profit. Pay per click advertising can be very profitable if carried out correctly, but in order to be successful one must know what keywords will brings them the best results and to bid on those keywords. When hiring RG Pacific to manage your pay-per-click advertisements, we will analyze and assess your keywords including its impressions, CPC, and conversions and then make recommendations to improve your pay-per-click performance and ultimately provide more traffic to your site.

Using Twitter to Build Your Brand

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Twitter is a micro blogging social network that is very simple to set up, and get running for the purposes of promoting your brand, content, products, sales, and more. The better the content you put out, the farther your content will go and the more mentions, retweets, and favorites it will earn.

Think of Twitter as a long term project. You need time to understand and grow your Twitter audience. A successful Twitter campaign consists of dedicated daily effort.

RG Pacific offers plans to help your business build its brand via Twitter. Our social media experts engage users by using hash tags, trending topics, and what people are searching on Twitter. Additionally, we search for your competition and get an idea of what content of theirs gets published consistently on Twitter.

Hire RG Pacific to manage your Twitter Profile

  • Set up new profile
  • Build your exisiting profile
  • Set up Twitter updates
  • Daily
  • Weekly
  • Set up and manage contests or sweepstakes
  • Build followers
  • Connect with buyers, followers, industry experts, etc.
  • Link building

Does a Landing Page Help SEO and PPC?

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Pay-Per-Click (PPC) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are the two most important tools for any online marketing strategy. They both help with short term and long term strategies. The goal is to maximize exposure while at the same time investing only the necessary amount of money to help raise ROI.

PPC is a vital tool for search engine marketing. Some terms can be costly, so it is imperative that you pay the lowest possible cost-per-click price possible. Google Adwords allows you to maximize cost by having the bets possible quality score, which is a metric that Google uses by evaluating the keyword with your website. Naturally, an important component of the analysis is the website Landing Page.

If you simply link all of your 20 or more keyword terms to your homepage, you will more than likely have a low quality score. Furthermore, why would you link a keyword, for example “womens suits”, to your homepage, where its  goal is to allow a person to select where they want to go on your website? Naturally if someone is looking for an item via a keyword, they want to find what they are looking for right away. The more clicks someone has to make in order to get to an action on your website, the bigger the chances that they won’t.

A Landing Page is therefore an important part of your PPC strategy. A Landing Page is an unique website page that is specific to a keyword, product, or purpose.  Most of the time they are not found via normal website search, but only through a marketing channel.  So, for PPC, if your keyword is “womens suits”, your Landing Page will deal specifically with this term, either with content, products, action items, or all.

As for SEO, Landing Pages fit a similar purpose.  Every SEO Strategy consists of dozens or terms, but not all of them yield high priority. Therefore a Landing Page can help you create unique content for keywords that are not ranking high on your website for SEO density.  Again, these pages are not viewable via normal website search. They are built uniquely so that your site can appear in search results for specific terms that the page is named after, has a title tag for, and is content rich with.

Landing Pages are key to any advanced PPC and SEO strategy. it can help your bottom line, improve spending, and make your site highly optimized for short and long term online marketing strategies.

 

Yelp Has Replaced Google Places on the new iPhone 5 Maps App – The Good and the Bad For Your Business

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The highly anticipated iPhone 5 has come with several new features; a bigger screen, faster operating system, lighter design, and a list of other new tools and gadgets.  As a business owner though, one thing you might of noticed has or will catch your attention sooner or later- Yelp is now the main source of business information on the new Apple Maps tool! Gone is Google Places, which has been the most targeted network for local businesses the last 10 years.  What does that mean? A lot if you never considered Yelp important, which no one has recently since Google Places launched a few years ago.

So how does this impact your business? Well, for starters, if your business is not listed on Yelp, you should do it now! When someone searches for a business address, phone number, or location information, Yelp is now fully integrated in the new Apple Maps app.  Google is now not only not integrated in Apple Maps, it is also not providing driving directions on the phone itself.

Is Yelp a good thing or bad thing for your business?? Well, for many business owners, including myself, Yelp is both a plus and a minus, depending on your experience. For starters, anyone can leave a review on your Yelp listing, good or bad, with no consequences.  I have had a lot of clients who had an ex employee or even a competitor write a damaging review and Yelp cannot remove it, as per their “guidelines”. Why? Well Yelp isn’t really a business directory, its a social network. Since people run Yelp, the company does not oversee or approve both good and bad reviews.  It has an automated system that regulates reviews and wants to show “balance”. So, even if you have 4 new customers write great reviews about your company, the bad review will still show on top in order to show the reader a fair analysis. But, as you have read, there is no filter for bad press, so if you run into this situation, it can be damaging for your business.

Now thats not to say Google Maps and Places was all fair. There was and still is a lot of bad practices and similar bad tactics used. But, unlike Yelp, Google has a special team that eventually hears and settles complaints from business owners. There has been no indication from Yelp that they are going to legitimize their business listings as of yet.

I see it as a personal attack on Google considering the current Apple vs Samsung patent lawsuits going on.  As you may have read, Apple is suing Samsung, which has smartphones running on the Android OS, the arch rival of the Apple OS, over similar features found in their phones.  I have to suspect that alienating Google from one of the most used iPhone apps is a direct hit to Google in order to strut their muscle. For business owners, it may be a time to either panic or become more active in this new trend that is surely going to affect every local business.

What can you do? Well, taking a strong and new approach to Yelp is key.  Regulating and cleaning up your Yelp page is the number one priority.  Many have said that if you become a paying Yelp customer, it is easier to get the Yelp team to help you with negative reviews. That, to me, makes sense. The first step is to CLAIM YOUR LISTING. you do this under a free Yelp business account, not a regular account. Go to http://biz.yelp.com to set it up.

You must monitor your Yelp account constantly now, as much as your Google Places accounts.  Yelp is now positioned to re-emerge as a strong local search player, so stay up to date on new tools that they are surely to deploy soon.  Most importantly, get new clients to write positive reviews, because sooner or later you are going to run into a situation and you do not want the negative marks to hurt the ability to product business!

Contact us if you need help setting up your Yelp Action Plan today.

How to Market Your Company on Facebook

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Social media is here people. Its no longer a fad, a trend, a new “hip” niche in the internet. It is front and center now, ahead of every business who wants to see the next quarter report with positive earnings. People socialize on the internet now more than ever.  Everyone is using the internet  on the go now, with mobile web search second to text messages, in their smart phones.  It is imperative for a company to target this audience with their marketing initiatives, and naturally, Facebook, the face of social media, is the most ideal option.

But how do you do it? How do you market your business product or service to a network of millions of people, the 3rd largest population in the world if Facebook was a nation?? That is the million dollar question (literally). But no worries, I am here to get the search started! Here are the top 2 ways to market your company on Facebook:

Facebook for Business

A business listing is essential on any internet directory. Reviews and visibility are king. A Facebook Business Page allows your company to gain a voice on the network.  You are able to gain a large following with “likes”, which is the equivalent of friends on Facebook.  It is a great platform to gain insight on customers, market new products, announce events, and engage new clients.  The goal is to gain access to friends of your followers. How? Well as you gain likes, make sure that what you market to their pages or timelines encourage action, such as promotions or discounts. People tend to trend those kinds of activities the most.

Facebook Groups

Groups are large niche networks of Facebook users, usually for a cause or reason.  They are similar to your business page, only thing is you join it or create it, and it is not entirely public. Starting a group is similar to a business page, but joining groups are where the value is.  Some groups are with tens of thousands of members, so it is an ideal platform to build your audience. Have a common strategy though, and be cautious. You can be kicked out groups, or tuned out, if you are too aggressive with your product or service. Be smart and engage users with talking trends. Take part in discussions. People are more likely to follow you if you are seen as engaging, rather than just another form of advertising.

There you have it folks, the top 2 tools at your disposal on Facebook for online marketing. Their are advertising avenues as well, such as Facebook Ads, that are similar to Google Adwords text ads that allow you to pay per click or impression. You can guide people to your Facebook business page or website. Personally, I guide those visits directly to my landing page or website. Unless you have a truly busy and engaging Facebook page, don’t risk the lead.

Good luck my friends and remember, find out who your customer is, and start the strategy with a solid plan!

Top 10 Reasons to Create Micro Websites for your Business

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Business exposure is so crucial nowadays, especially in todays economy. I see so many businesses cram soo much information on their websites with the intention of exposing all of their products and services to their customers. With their online marketing and advertising budgets lower than before, it has become crucial for businesses to sell as much as possible to each web visitor all the time.

They also have the intention of becoming optimized and listed for all their web services on Google and other search engines. But, since their website is so full of different information and services, it is hard for them to become specialized in a specific service or product… hence, they have a low page rank and do not appear on the 1st page of their product keyword searches! This is huge dilemma and alot of businesses do not know what to do. They cannot afford to remove information, they have no time to redesign their site… and their budget is small. What can they do?

Creating micro websites is the answer! A micro website is a mini website that is specific to a product or service. You have 10 products? The key here is creating 10 mini websites (3-4 pages) that are keyword dense and specific to theis product/service, with a powerful keyword based URL. The goal? Get optimized and listed faster for this product/service keyword, thus having another “branch” in your online marketing tree of offerings.

Here are the top 10 reasons this will work:

  1. You can keep it specific to a keyword phrase only! You do not have to worry about Google or another search engine not knowing about what your site is about. The content and keywords will be very specific and direct.
  2. You can buy a keyword based URL for your product or service. As you all may know, your URL is the most powerful SEO tool in search engine optimization. Adding your keyword to your domain name can work wonders.
  3. You can show your company specialization for this particular product or service. As you know, many web visitors do not take the time to really familiarize themselves with your different offerings. A micro website gives you the chance to show off your expertise and uniqueness of your company as it relates to the product or service.
  4. A micro website will get you ranked faster. Creating a micro website that is specific to a keyword phrase gives you up to a 40% faster optimization rate, thus getting you ranked higher much faster than your main website would.
  5. Saves you money in online advertising. As you know, SEO takes alot of time. A micro website can save you tons of money in the long run since it can get listed faster than your main website.
  6. Gives your company more exposure. Imagine having your micro websites appear for all of your products or services, along with your main website? This is called web dominance. Why not give it a try?
  7. Are affordable. Micro websites cost considerably less than adding the amount of pages to your website, both in design and advertising costs. Why not save money and get more exposure on the internet with another website?
  8. Great regional strategy. Does your business have multiple locations? Are your services offered in different areas? Micro websites can also help you target geo specific customers with the same keyword strategy!
  9. Create backlinks to your website to boost it’s page rank. Micro websites can also boost your main website traffic and ranking too. Linking your micro websites to your main website will give your main site considerable web traffic, thus boosting its page rank and backlinks considerably.
  10. It works. Thousands of internet savvy businesses have been implementing micro websites to their online busness model. Try typing in a city based keyword, check Google local listings, and see how many websites are the same company. This gives companies who implement it more exposure, better SEO results, and a competitive advantage… all the while saving them tons of money. Try it!

If you would like my company, www.RGPacific.com, to work with you to implement this strategy, please give me a call at 323-314-2127. We are located in Los Angeles and offer the best and most affordable web design, development, and internet marketing services.

Please do not hesitate to post some questions!

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