A lot of businesses have struggled with search, and sometimes make mistakes that pretty much render them invisible in the search engine or tossed out altogether. For example, buying links might not sound so bad if you're not familiar with the ways of search, but it's a huge no no if you want people to find you through search engines. It's against the rules or "quality guidelines".
Google recently ran over 400 studies on paused AdWords accounts to figure out whether or not paid search campaigns cannibalize organic clicks. Google says they don't. We talked about this at WebProNews when this information was first released. Today, Google is talking about these studies again, saying search ads drive 89% incremental traffic. They have a new video about the research.
Google really wants you to start advertising if you're a local business, and is trying to make it as easy as possible to do so. The company announced the launch of AdWords Express, which is essentially AdWords without the hassle of manning your campaign. You don't even need a website for a landing page. In fact, Google would probably prefer it if you didn't have one, because you can use your Google Place Page, and they would surely like for users to go there.
Small businesses should be aware of two major developments from Google. For starters, I don't know if you've been keeping up with all of the Google+ news, but the company has been shutting down the profiles of those that have been created for businesses. Right now, Google doesn't want businesses using the service in its current incarnation (which is still in testing mode).
Google has been pretty busy launching products and features this week. As Google is an essential part of any online marketing strategy, we thought it would we be good to highlight some of the key features here. City Pages Google launched new City Pages, where people can browse a list of top businesses as recommended by locals by rating, category, and filter. The feature is starting with Portland, Austin, San Diego, and Madison, but will be expanding.
One thing is clear. For better or for worse, the major search engines are going more social in their quest to deliver more relevant results. In fact, even the non-major ones are as well. Is social a major part of your search strategy? Let us know.
Google has officially launched a program it started testing last year, in which the company sends photographers around to small businesses to photograph the inside of stores, and post the photos on Google Place Pages. This should be a significant boost for the content of these Place Pages. Google's Place Pages have become to the go-to place for local business information for a lot of people. That's simply because Google itself is the go-to place, and the search engine results returned most prominently are often these pages for local intent queries.
This week, there were several major items announced by big companies that could in turn have tremendous impacts for small businesses - at least for those that participate. Stories range from search to local daily deals, and even a new productivity suite from Microsoft. Microsoft/Nokia Deal Means More Potential Bing Searchers
Blekko, the search engine that is using human curation to reduce spam in search results, and MerchantCircle, an online network of local business owners, announced a partnership today to remove spam for users searching for small business resources. MerchantCircle's community of 1.6 million members will help improve small business search results by curating the new slashtag "/smallbusiness" so that it returns results from trusted resources that are free of spam.
Traditionally Yahoo! Small Business sees an uptick in people starting their own online business in the first quarter of the New Year. As 2011 kicks off, Yahoo! Small Business explores the New Year’s surge and the reasons and barriers to starting a new business. A new survey, conducted by Yahoo! Small Business and Ipsos OTX MediaCT, reveals one in two have either dreamed of starting their own business or have actually started a business. Key findings from the survey include:
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