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How to Dominate Local Search

Businesses that depend on customers in the local community need to dominate local search results to stand out from the competition. Rising to the top of local searches is simply a matter of following these best practices.

Use geo-targeted keywords and content for increased visibility in local searches. Avoid keyword stuffing, such as a plumbing company placing Venice Beach plumber and twenty other cities followed by plumber at the bottom of each page of their website. Business owners who haven’t mastered writing geo-targeted content using one keyword phrase per page should look for a firm specializing in local search engine marketing in California.local-search

Businesses that depend on walk in traffic should have their address, phone number and hours of operation prominently displayed on the homepage their website, along with customer reviews, which help consumers make a decision. Mobile consumers want information quickly; they will not waste precious data searching for a “contact us” link. A California Internet marketing firm may suggest adding a map or information about local public transportation to make it easy for consumers to reach the business.

Get local citations and your business will dominate the local search results. A Google My Business listing is essential. Yahoo! Local, Yellowbook and Manta are also perfect examples of places to claim your business listing. Always include multiple photos when it’s possible. Local citation building takes time unless a business owner hires a California Internet marketing company to perform citation building.


California SEO agency Sticky Web Media specializes in on site optimization for businesses of all sizes.

Top Strategies To Improve Email Marketing

If you’ve dabbled in the world of email marketing, then you’re aware of the challenges that you have to face when creating an email that actually yields consumer engagement. Even if you’re an amazing writer, you’re only fighting half the battle. There are numerous steps that you have to take and an abundance of marketing strategies that you need to integrate.

Nurture Your Campaigns

It’s a delicate process to say the least. For one, if you decide to skip the whole strategic planning part, you could end up being labeled as a “spammer”, which generally doesn’t end too well. People will then begin to disregard your emails and your reputation could take a tremendous hit for it.

This is why properly planning out your emails beforehand will start you off on the right foot.

Everyone is looking for ways to improve their emails so they can drive new customers into their business. And, everybody struggles at some point trying to get over the hump. You’re definitely not alone in this. Honestly, the best advice that can be offered here is to do what works and stopping whatever doesn’t. It sounds like common sense, but in fact there’s more to it.

Check Your Analytics

It’s there for a reason. By evaluating your performance data, you’ll get an idea of what people like. This is important because you can then incorporate your findings in the next campaign that you host.

Optimize Your Emails

Merge the strong keywords on your site into your emails. Popular keywords are essentially popular because a high volume of people search for them on a daily basis. This is an important aspect in marketing that should be considered.

Bio: eTargetMedia is one of the top agencies providing targeted email and postal lists to businesses of all sizes. eTargetMedia also provides a variety of email and landing page design services as well as email append services.

Three Tips for Improving Email Deliverability

Written by eTargetMedia.

Making sure your emails get delivered to their intended targets is just as important as having great content. Unfortunately, many emails never reach their destination for a variety of reasons — anywhere from incorrect email addresses to the sender being on an ISP’s “blocked” list. Here are a few steps that you can take to ensure that this doesn’t happen to your emails:

Avoid Email Blacklists: Getting on an email “blacklist” can severely cripple your ability to run effective email campaigns. It can be easier than you think to get on one of these lists if your email lists is not kept clean. You can do a web search to see if you are currently on any lists.

Understand Your Bounces: There are two different types of bounces: temporary and permanent. A temporary bounce my come from a person having a full mailbox; permanent errors can be anything from an ISP setting up an email trap to an incorrect email. You can set up an email network to recognize the difference between the two.

Trust the Source of Your Mailing Lists: If you are going to pay for the use of a third-party’s email list, make sure it is coming from a source you can trust. You’ll want to make sure you are working with companies such as eTargetMedia that have completely permission-based email lists in order to comply with regulations. You’ll also want to make sure that the list is frequently updated for bad emails and is broken into target audiences.

eTargetMedia offers digital marketing solutions to companies ranging from startups to Fortune 500 businesses. They have email lists that include more than 150 million names and 15 million businesses.

 

Common Causes of Email Bounces

Written by eTargetMedia.

When your business sends out an email campaign, you want to make sure that it gets to the intended recipients. Unfortunately, some emails will get “bounced” back to the sender as undeliverable. Some of these instances are simply because the email address is no longer valid — in this case, it makes sense to make sure you are using a validated email list from a direct marketing company such as eTarget Media. In other instances, the bounces will happen because of correctable errors.

Here’s a look at a few common reason why emails get bounced back and never reach their intended recipient:

Bad Domains: Because of a typo, the recipient’s domain in their email address is not entered in properly; for example, an email address of “youraddress@gmail.com” might accidentally be “youraddress@gmial.com.” Make sure you check domain names as much as possible before sending an email.

Spam Content: Email servers can automatically reject incoming email messages if they detect content patterns consistent with spam emails. These triggers can include overuse of phrases such as “free” or “guarantee,” the use of multiple colors of text or multiple fonts within the same email, overuse of exclamation points and the aggressive use of calls to action.

Mailbox Issues: A person might want to receive your email but be unable to get it in their mailbox because of a problem on their end. This could be for several reasons including that their mailbox is full or that their email server is crashed. When you receive these types of bounces, you’ll want to resend the email in a few days to see if the user has resolved their email problems.

eTargetMedia has 20 years of experience in direct and Internet marketing. The company’s dedicated and experienced team helps businesses of all sizes create and execute a range of marketing campaigns.

Benefiting from a Professional Web Hosting Company

Written By Rack Alley

Does your company have a web presence? If it doesn’t, you should definitely make this a priority ASAP. However, if your company does, it’s just as important that you make this a priority in every single way. Never stop looking for ways to improve the way you relate to others online. One way you could do this is by bringing on a company to handle your web hosting. The good news is that, in LA, it won’t be very hard to find one.

The benefit of Los Angeles web hosting is that your company doesn’t have to pay for all the physical space it takes to house your hardware. Another company will handle that need and you’ll simply pay them a reduced price for it. Otherwise, you have to have this space on your own property. You’ll also need all the supplemental hardware it takes to look over your hosting equipment. Then there are also the added bills for hiring IT experts to do more of the same.

There’s also Los Angeles colocation to consider. With this option, you just pay for the space. This is a good option for smaller companies that may not be able to afford hosting. You get the space and check in on it and work on it as necessary.

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If you need an LA web hosting company, don’t waste your time considering all your options in Southern California. Instead, let the experts at Rack Alley show you what is possible now and in the future for your company.

Three Ways to Modify Your Email Subject Lines and Increase Open Rates

Written by eTargetMedia.

You can have a skillfully crafted and informative email campaign that potential customers would love to read, but if they’ll never know about it if they don’t open the email first. For this reason alone, it’s imperative for you to pay close attention to your email subject lines. They are the first thing that your customers will notice when they receive your email and the strength of the subject line will likely be the difference between an email being opened or marked for deletion.

So how can you improve your email subject lines to get more people to open your emails? Here are a few tips from leading email marketing firm eTargetMedia:

Straightforward subject lines often are the best. It’s easy to try and create a cute and very creative subject line that will capture the imagination — and attention — of your customers. However, it’s also possible to get so cute that you obscure the message. Whether or not you are using humor in your subject lines, make sure the point of the email is clear.

Numbers and lists attract attention. Just as with online content headlines, people are naturally interested in email subject lines that list the “10 Best…” or “Seven Ways to…” do something. They know that they will be getting information in short, easy-to-digest packets of information.

Include action verbs whenever possible. Directing action verb at people — instead of writing in a passive, third-person voice — can be incredibly powerful. You want people to do something after reading your email, so why not spell that out in the subject line?

eTargetMedia has 20 years of experience delivering online and offline targeted marketing services to clients ranging from small businesses to Fortune 500 companies.

Why Businesses Prefer Colocation

Written by Rack Alley

At some point in time most businesses would be face with the tough decision of whether to move, consolidate or expand their data center as a part of their IT infrastructure strategy. The decision would involve analyzing the hard and soft costs surrounding the data center and whether to go for colocation or to get a dedicated data justify. Off Site colocation is usually preferred by most companies and some advantages are listed below.

Reduced IT Infrastructure and Management Costs

Lowered costs constitutes of one of the main benefits of colocation. Businesses opting for colocation are able to reduce their total IT management cost. This is because they do not have to invest in HVAC systems, UPS and backup generators in order to store their data. All these investments would be carried out by the colocation provider.

Increased Power Capacity and Redundancy

A high power density is generally required when it comes to upgrading IT applications. An in-house data center would have to cope with such power challenges. Colocation providers enable companies to have access to a higher power-per-square foot ratio in comparison to in-house data centers. This allows companies to target innovation in terms of high density virtualization and computing.

Reliability and Uptime

Network reliability would lead to business continuity. Colocation providers offer various networking options with flexible solutions depending on the needs of the business. For instance, Los Angeles web hosting solutions are among the most reliable in the world. The configuration of the data centers are meant to provide reliability and availability.

Rack Alley specializes in Los Angeles colocation and LA web hosting services for businesses.

Negative Online reviews could be bad for business

Article was submitted by Peter Z. from Fix Bad Reputation.

I have learned that it is best to never argue with your clients, because your reputation is not worth messing with. Any upset client can go to Yelp or a complaint site like Ripoffreport and leave negative reviews about you that would cost you thousands of dollars in lost business, even if there is no truth to what they say. Some of these sites would never remove these posts even with a court order.

Negative reviews posted on complaint sites can be disastrous. Therefore, the way you should handle customer complaints is to either offer them free service or a partial refund.

On the other hand a happy customer may refer more business to you or leave positive reviews online that would have the opposite effect. In this day and age it is just not worth arguing with clients, specially if it is over a few dollars. Yes sometimes the business owner may be right and sometime the customer may be trying to extort you into a refund, but really it comes down to what you have to lose down the line and if you feel negative reviews would cost you more down the line then try your best to work out issues with your customers before it is too late.

Interesting international search and social media usage facts

Webcertain recently published some interesting international search and social media usage facts: 1. More than a quarter of the world’s online population log onto Facebook EVERY day 2. Brazil is the world’s by far most socially engaged nation 3. Yandex is the world’s fourth largest search engine, now bigger than Bing 4. Google holds a 71% share of the global search market; Baidu captures 16.5% 5. Central and Eastern Europe’s social audience set to outstrip that of North America next year 6. Incredible climb of 360 Search sees it surge above 20% market share in China 7. Twitter now has 215 million active monthly users globally; LinkedIn 184 million 8

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Interesting international search and social media usage facts

 

Google Analytics, a service for small to medium businesses

Article Written by : Top SEO Software Reviews

Google’s acquisition of Urchin on Demand in 2005 from Urchin Software Corporation helped Google to design and introduce Google Analytics. A later acquisition of Adaptive Path in 2006 helped Google to redesign the site once more. Since April 2011, a new version of Google Analytics featuring multiple dashboards, options of customer reports and a new interface design is helping small to medium sized businesses.

Google Analytics is a free web analytic service to anyone with a Google account to measure website traffic, sources, conversions (a subset of Segmentation) and sales. Its dashboard, scorecards and motion charts indicate data over time. Since the introduction, it has become the most widely used website statistical analysis service for small to medium companies. It can track all visitors from various sources including search engines and social media. It produces custom reports and allows e-mail based sharing and communication. It can easily integrate with other Google products such as AdWorks, Public Data Explorer and Website Optimizer. It is geared towards small to medium web based companies and therefore, has limited ability to handle big data and not suited for large commercial enterprises. Since it collects data through cookies some raises privacy concerns.