The Alzheimer’s Association (Alz.Org) works nationwide to fund research into finding a cure while providing care and support for those affected by Alzheimer’s. September is the World Alzheimer’s Month. Here in Orange County, landmarks, city halls and retail shops will be going purple to show their support. Local Splash will be painting our company purple for the month of September, leading up to the official September 23rd, GO Purple OC week.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXnZt5VMjZY

Alzheimer’s is a disease, a type of dementia that affects memory, thought and behavior. It is a progressive disease, growing worse over time. More than 83,000 people in Orange County alone are living with Alzheimer’s or a related dementia, or are at immediate risk. The Orange County Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association currently serves only 26 percent of the affected population, leaving more than 60,000 people and their families without the care they need.

November brings the End Alzheimer’s Walk at Angel Stadium in Anaheim. The Local Splash team will be walking again this year. Think about forming a team of your own and joining in. Don’t live in Orange County? The Alzheimer’s Association is holding events nationwide. Check their website to get involved in your area. Join in the worldwide effort to EndAlz!

GO Purple OC will bring much-needed visibility to Alzheimer’s disease and rally the community to join us in efforts to provide help for those affected today and hope for a brighter tomorrow. Local Splash is proud to be part of the team. The goal is a world without Alzheimer’s!

Local Splash makes its appearance on the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest growing private companies for the fourth year in a row! The list is the result of Inc.’s annual study encompassing the multitude of public businesses and hidden champions; niche technology firms, infrastructure providers, and B2B companies. By promoting the virtues of continual innovation, learning, and improving communication skills, Local Splash has sustained a high level of growth and success. We’ve maintained our place on the list through a team effort.

Search engine technology is the equivalent of a modern arms race, with tremendous resources and some of the brightest mathematicians on the planet working on a daily basis to improve internet search results. Companies like Google and Microsoft (Bing) are heavily invested in providing quality results for search inquiries, constantly updating their technology to weed out efforts to “game” the system. Most of this activity is conducted with a high degree of secrecy. As a result, Local Splash’s technical staff rarely has time to celebrate previous achievements, constantly monitoring, absorbing and implementing the latest changes to search engine optimization technologies.

Despite the challenges of the past year, including a physical move to a new location, Local Splash’s sales force has nearly doubled in size. A focus on improving the training process for new team members has resulted in a new hire’s successfully landing their first client before they even get to the floor. This confidence building methodology is paying fantastic dividends. At the same time, sales has worked hard to heighten our brand visibility and expand Local Splash’s outreach to the public with online profiles and a high degree of operational transparency.

When our clients deal with Local Splash, they are talking to real people who are interested in promoting THEIR business. Our client support department is tasked with fielding questions, providing answers and maintaining relationships. As our business grows, client support and operations have to develop new processes to improve communication, anticipate issues and find cost-effective solutions. These tests are an ongoing endeavor as technology changes and our client base grows.

Our place on the Inc. 5000 list indicates we’re meeting these challenges! Working together, Local Splash continues to experience a high degree of growth as a premiere search engine optimization service provider. From mom & pop shops to national chains, plumbers to pet stores, with a big serving of pizza parlors thrown in for seasoning, Local Splash helps businesses appear on the first page of local search results.

To learn more, visit Local Splash or call 877-635-6225.

It’s been a busy week in Google Plus Local / Places land this week. After announcing the new Google Plus Local service over a year ago, Google finally announced this week that they are beginning to merge Google Places and Plus Local. This means that if you have a Google Places page that meets a certain set of criteria you will also have access to Google Plus Local functionality. This move has been a long time coming and opens up lots of possibilities for local business owners.

What does this mean for you?

Google Plus Local is Google’s own social network, so having a merged Google Plus Local page means you can leverage the benefits of social media to communicate with both existing and prospective customers. We know you aren’t the average, ordinary business owner, so here are some types to leverage the social features of Google Plus to show your users/customers/prospects how amazing you are!

Deals and Offers

An easy first step is to use this new platform to distribute offers and deals. Since Google Plus Local pages show up in local pack rankings that means that your prospects will have immediate access to an offer that may entice them to visit your business.

Build a Community

In today’s competitive online landscape it’s important to start building your community right away. That means you should be responding to any posts that people make on your Google Plus Local page as well as share relevant news about your business brand to prospective consumers. You should also start commenting on other Google Plus pages as your business. This helps you build awareness of your brand by reaching people who may not already be aware of your business. You can also be a content curator and share relevant pieces of information that are related to your industry. This allows you to give back to people who visit your page while not focusing on selling them. By providing them value through content curation, you establish yourself as an expert in your field and make it easier to break down the walls that would prevent a prospect from turning into a customer. These community building tactics help you leverage power of social media while at the same time building your online brand.

Google Authorship and Google Publisher Markup

In case you haven’t heard, Google is moving aggressively towards semantic search. In this new world it’s important to create semantic association between your brand and webpage and physical business location. Luckily Google Plus Local was designed to help facilitate just that. Rather then reinvent the wheel here are two fantastic and easy to understand guide to setting up publisher and authorship markup.

Extra Resources:

How to Use Google Plus for Business – This is an excellent Google Plus page that shares relevant information on how to use Google Plus for business.

How To Optimization Your Google + Business Page – This post on the HubSpot blog shares 5 relevant tips to help you get the most out of your Google Plus Local page.

Lastly here is a SliderShare presentation that contains the information from HubSpot’s “How to Use Google+ for Business eBook”: