Why You Need to Be Tracking Your Statistics with Google Analytics

 

Have you ever run an ad in the newspaper only to wonder how many people really took the time to read it? Have you ever paid for a billboard on a highway, only to wonder how often it is looked at?
With a website, you don’t need to wonder about any of these things, because it can be tracked easily.

Google Analytics is an incredibly powerful statistical tracking service that is provided by Google free of charge. You can sign up here:
http://google.com/analytics

Once you have an account, all you need to do is forward a special bit of code to the person who manages your website. They will need to place it on each page. After a few days you will have a lot of valuable data to review.

Here are just a few of the things Google Analytics shows you:

• How many visitors you get each week/day/hour/and so forth.
• Where your visitors are coming from. What keywords are they typing in to find you? What sites are they finding you through?
• What specific pages on your website are your visitors viewing? It even breaks down how long they stay on each page.
• What specific pages are people leaving your site from?
• Where are the visitors located geographically?
• And lots more…

Tracking the performance and results of your website is incredibly important. If you aren’t doing it already, you are really missing out on a chance to understand how your website is performing.
A professional internet marketing specialist would be happy to explain what these statistics mean.

In an up coming video I will show you how to set up Google Analytics and a few other useful website tracing scripts.

The Internet is an amazing place that allows you to track almost everything your website visitors do. This information is very powerful and you should be taking advantage of it for your own business

 

Press Releases for your Business

I’m sure you’ve heard of press releases, and perhaps even have some experience with sending them out for your local business. Did you know that there are also press releases that can be distributed online?
Traditionally, sending out a press release meant that there would be a great amount of work involved. You would need to print several copies, and spend several hours mailing and faxing the information out to the various press release centers (if you even knew what they were!). Fortunately, online press releases have simplified this quite a bit:

• When a press release is submitted online, there is no need to mail or fax anything, you can submit it electronically. This saves a great deal of time, money, and energy!
• Online press releases can be distributed quickly, as delivery is instant.
• Many online press releases are published online, which means that this will help with your search engine rankings because it will result in new links to your website.

Many press release sites “borrow” from one another, meaning that sending it one place can result in the distribution of many websites.

 

As you can see, there are many reasons why you should be submitting press releases online. You can write a press release on just about anything. Does your business provide a new service? Experiencing an anniversary? Recently recognized somewhere? Through creativity, you can find all kinds of reasons to be writing about your business.
Since creating and distributing press releases can be a bit daunting, I would suggest hiring a professional to do it for you. The benefit will far outweigh the cost!

Later on I will show you where to find the best places to help you with your press release and show you how you can write your own professional press release.

 

 

Other Important Local Business Directories You Should Have Your Business Listed In

There are several additional business directories you need to be listed in besides Google

Recently I talked about the importance of being listed in the Google Local Business Directory. I’d like to share a few additional directories with you that I think are also very important for your business to be listed in. Please note, you don’t need to be in every single directory that exists, but there are a few that carry quite a bit of weight. When you have the time (I’d suggest making the time soon!), Watch the Video then check the links to these directories posted below the video. They are all free to join and will help your business gain credibility on the internet.

Think of these directories as Phone Books online.

Just click the link to get signed up at each of the business directories. They may or may not all be available.

• Merchant Circle
  http://merchantcircle.com/corporate/
• MSN Local Directory
  https://ssl.search.live.com/listings/BusinessSearch.aspx
• Free Listing In Yellow Pages
  http://listings.yellowpages.com/
• Free Listing in Yellow Book
  http://corporate.yellowbook.com/products/internet-free-listing/
• Free Listing In Magic Yellow
  http://www.magicyellow.com/Add_Your_Business.cfm
• Local.com a website about local information
  http://advertise.local.com/
• Yelp
  https://biz.yelp.com/signup/
• YellowBot
  http://www.yellowbot.com/signin?yp_r=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.yellowbot.com%2Fsubmit%2Fnewbusiness

The Google Local Business Directory and How it can Help Your Business

There is a resource out there that is incredibly powerful, and if your business isn’t benefiting from it, you are missing out on a HUGE opportunity. I am talking about the Google Local Business Directory.
Google’s local business directory is simply a directory that contains information on local businesses. When someone searches for “their town restaurant”, a listing of relevant restaurants in their area appears before them.
Here’s the catch though, these results also appear when someone searches for “their town restaurant” in the regular Google search engine as well!

Now get this, some companies out there actually charge you a fee, just to get you listed in this directory. This is ridiculous because it is free to be listed!

The Google local business directory allows you to list all kinds of neat information about your business, including things like the hours you are open, pictures, special events you have coming up and more. You can even list coupons that people can print and claim at your business. Pretty cool huh?

The listings are interactive as well, meaning that people can leave reviews for your business and everyone can view this. This can have a powerful effect on your business, as it shows others social proof that your business is a good one.

You would be surprised how many businesses out there haven’t claimed their Google local business directory listing. I would highly suggest that you take the time now to claim the listing for your business if you haven’t done so already. It will only take a few minutes and you will be up and running in no time.

 

 

You can ad your business Google’s Local Business Directory Here
Or copy and paste the link below into your Internet Browser window.

http://www.google.com/local/add/analyticsSplashPage?gl=US&hl=en-US

Along with customer reviews and a very good map you can also offer coupons and offer special savings from your Google Local Business Directory.

Again, this is a free service from Google and there is no reason not to begin taking advantage of this service right now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Find Out What People in your Local Area are Searching for Online and Position Your Business For Profits

Now that we’ve established how valuable it is to get traffic online I wan t to give you an idea of just how often people are searching for your business online. This seams to be a big mystery for many small business owners.

Google is currently the top search engine online. When people want to find something online, a majority of them use Google. Did you know that Google actually keeps track of what people search for? This gives us a HUGE advantage. Google is kind enough to give us free access to their database of searches. You don’t need to guess what people are searching for, you can use this tool to find out exactly what people are looking for. It also gives you an idea of the number of people searching for these terms every month too. It is incredibly powerful.

It is important to understand WHAT people are searching for, so you can make sure that your website appears in the search results.

The flowing video will show you how to use the Google Free Keyword Tool.

I have to warn you, it is incredibly addicting!

You can get to the Google Key Word tool Here

Or you can simply go to Google and type in the search phrase “Key word tool” It’s generally the first listing in the search results.

Once you have the tool simply type in search terms you think you would use if you were looking for your business. In other words think like a customer looking for the type of services you are offering.

If you own a Baltimore salon (or a Philadelphia Salon) or whatever, the Google keyword tool will give you results from the previous month. these results are terms that real people actually used to find business like yours. The keyword tool will also give you some ideas of similar terms people may be using to find you.

This is very useful information for your business. You need to be spearing in the Search engine results page known as SERPs

Not getting listed in the SERPs is like people actually showing up at your business and knocking on your door and you not answering.