Tag Archives: local search engine optimization

During a recent session at OMI Social, Mobile and Digital Marketing Boot Camp in Los Angeles, CA, instructor, Sundeep Kapur, shared Facebook marketing tips to help grow your fan base and engage your fans. Facebook is a great place to connect and build relationships with your customers. Here are 5 key takeaways from the Digital Marketing Boot Camp about Facebook marketing.

1. Specify the location in your Facebook posts. Have you ever posted something for your business like “We’re in Huntington Beach selling jewelry on the pier, stop by and check out our inventory,” and made it viewable to “Public?” This may seem like a great thing to do; however, if your brand is a national brand, it’s irrelevant to a lot of your fans that aren’t in that location. Next time you’re posting a status update that would only appeal to people in a particular area, specify the target location by selecting “Location” and typing in the location of the people you think would benefit from seeing the post. This keeps you from accidentally spamming your other fans who wouldn’t be interested in that piece of location-sensitive information.

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2. Highlight your best posts. If you have a post that you think is particularly great content, click the star in the upper right corner of the post to “highlight” it. This makes the story double the width so it stands out among the other posts on your Timeline.

Facebookmarketingblog3. Ask your fans questions. Asking your fans for their opinion is a great way to encourage comments. The more comments on a post, the more likely it is to show up in your fans’ Newsfeeds. Try asking them to share a story about how their use your product, or to finish your sentence by filling in a blank (Ex: My favorite thing to eat at Sarah’s Pizza is ____”). You’ll find that you’ll get more responses to your posts when you encourage participation this way.

4. Use Facebook Sponsored Stories and Ads. According to the OMI session, it’s best to use Sponsored Stories in order to grow your fan base. Choose the “page like story” under sponsored stories. This is using friends’ endorsement which increases the story’s click-through rate (CTR). If you’re looking to grow your engagement, use Facebook Ads and choose “Ad from a page post.” This ad will display the post of your choice for friends and friends of friends to see.

5. Photos and videos get the most attention. The best posts on Facebook are those that include a photo or video. People love looking at this kind of content on Facebook and they are more likely to interact with a post if it includes an eye-catching photo or interesting video, so post this kind of content as often as possible.

LocalsearchLocal search is rapidly growing. In fact, it has been estimated that by 2015, 30% of all searches will have local intent, when compared with 12% in 2009 that’s a significant jump. Eighty percent of all searches conducted via mobile phone are for local services and products, which means if you aren’t thinking about local SEO for your business, you may soon be left trailing behind your competitors. Follow these 5 local SEO do’s to make sure your business climbs to the top pages of the search engine rankings.

1. Do optimize for localized keywords. This means including the location you want to target in your keyword phrase. Example: “Hair Salon Newport Beach, CA.”

2. Do create listings in local directories. When your business is listed in a variety of directories across the Internet, it increases your web presence and boosts your rankings. If your business isn’t already listed, add it to local directories like Google Places, Yahoo! Local, Yelp, Merchant Circle, SuperPages, etc. The more places you’re listed, the more likely your potential customers are to find you.

3. Do use photos and videos. Uploading optimized photos and videos to your website as well as submitting them to social media websites like Pinterest and YouTube increase your online presence, build your backlinks and keep your brand in front of your customers’ eyes. People love photos and videos which means they’ll be more likely to share them with friends via social networking.

4. Do keep your content fresh. Make sure once your local directory listings are live, that you keep going back to update the content. Keep your website content fresh as well in order to encourage search engines to keep stopping back to index your site. Search engines are looking for relevancy, so if your content is fresh and interesting and people are sharing it with others, it appears relevant and you are rewarded with higher rankings.

5. Do ask your customers for reviews. Depending on what type of business you have, determine one or two review websites to concentrate your efforts on. Then ask your happy customers to share their experiences with others. Tell them exactly where they will be able to find your business on those websites so it’s quick and easy for them. More reviews equal higher rankings as well as help convince potential customers to use your products rather than your competitors.

FacebooklogoAlthough the main reason companies decide to get on social media networks like Facebook is to engage and interact with their customers, there are other reasons why businesses should maintain a social media presence. One of these reasons is for search engine optimization (SEO) purposes. Boosting your SEO efforts will help your search engine rankings and make it easier for potential customers to find your business rather than your competitors. Here are 5 reasons why your business needs a Facebook page for SEO.

1. Google and Bing crawl and index Facebook pages and comments. This means when people search for keywords that you use on your page, your page will be more likely to show up high in the search results.

2. When people “like” your content on Facebook and share it with others, it makes your page seem more relevant to the search engines. This means you’re more likely to appear high in the rankings. People who “like” your page can also be considered new leads or contacts.

3. Your Facebook presence adds quality backlinks to your website. The more backlinks that lead to your website the higher your business will climb in the rankings.

4. With 800 million users, Facebook is likely a place where your target audience spends time. This means you must have a presence on the social network in order to connect directly with your customers and potential customers.

5. Facebook is easily accessed on mobile devices which gives your customers and potential customers access to your content and keeps your brand in front of their eyes no matter where they are.