June 2011 Newsletter

In This Issue:

Random Free Hosting Site

We'd like to congratulate Ab Butler Dogtrot for being the winner of this month's free site hosting. At the beginning of each month we will call up our own site's homepage. Whomever's site is the featured site when the page loads will get FREE hosting of one domain for one month. It's just our way of saying thank you.

Google Coupons

Google Coupons (or Offers) are a great way to provide special discounts and deals to potential customers who come across your local listings on Google. Once you design a coupon, customers can print it and present it at your business location. Currently, coupons can be used to target only U.S. customers. To create coupons:

  1. Log into Google Places Account

  2. Click on the “Offers” Tab

  3. Click on “Add an offer now” button

  4. Fill in all the information. The Printed and Mobile preview of you Coupons will appear on right

  5. Click on the continue button

Your coupon will appear in your business listing within 24 hours. Find it in Maps by clicking more info in your listing’s info bubble, and clicking the Coupons tab. Yahoo Local Listings also offers this option but only in paid version of the account.

Google Places

Google now claims that more than 22% of all searches are currently related to location or contain geo-targeted keywords. Google has made significant efforts to secure its existing lead in local search with Google Place Pages (FPP). Since Google's latest local algorithmic shift from Maps to Places, small businesses once again have a significant marketing opportunity and a way to appear higher in these rankings.

On a local level, we've found a well-optimized and complete GPP ranks higher than most clients' actual Web site. That's because Google has a vested interest in crawling their own pages first.

GPPs should be considered a mandatory first step in a local marketing campaign. If you haven't claimed your GPP you need to do so soon.

Old Article Worth Seeing Again

Are you one of those site owners starting to worry the whole social networking fad is passing you by but you just don't know how to get started? We've found an extensive resource guide to social networking sites (opens in Adobe Reader format), social bookmarking sites, and video sharing sites. There are hundreds of links in this document to assist you promote your online interests.

New Sites Joining Us Or Completed Recently

Help these folks by visiting their site. All ya'll will remember how hard it is to get those initial "hits" so the search engines notice your site. So take a minute and visit their site.