At first glance, Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising seems like a fantastic way to generate tons of traffic, increase your bottom line, and expand your online reputation. After all, how hard can it be to bid on your most powerful keywords and design traffic-sucking PPC ads designed to get customers to buy?
But don't let the simplicity of PPC campaigns fool you. If done improperly, PPC campaigns can be one of the most time-consuming and expensive endeavors an online business can undertake. And if you happen to bid on an expensive keyword, there's a very real possibility that you'll drive your business (and its profits) straight to the ground.
Don't let this all-too-common mistake happen to you. Here at Loyal 9 Marketing, we understand exactly what it takes to design a low-cost, successful PPC ad campaign.
If you've never heard of Google Places before, then you're in for a real treat - especially if your customer sales funnel is currently bone-dry.
Launched in late 2010, Google Places for Business Listings took the organic search engine world by storm when its results started popping up on first page of a local search (for example, "bankruptcy lawyers in Dallas"). The geniuses behind Google realized that their users wanted to find local businesses with excellent reputations. Thus, Google Places' listings are based on the trust-score for each business.
Needless to say, Google Places has grown to the point where customers are far more likely to click on listings as opposed to an organic search results.
As a business owner, you know that first impressions are everything. From the very first interaction with your customer until long after you make the sale, the very success of your business hinges on your ability to woo, impress, and astound your clients.
The very same rule applies to your website. In fact, it's no exaggeration to say that your website is the foundation for your online success. If it's designed well, you'll pull in tons of lucrative traffic. If it's poorly designed, you'll not only lose out on new customers...
You may very well permanently damage your online reputation.
Why Citations Are Important to Your Local Business Listings
Citations are defined as "mentions" of your business name and address on other webpages, even if there is no link to your website. An example of a citation might be an online yellow pages directory where your business is listed, but not linked to. It can also be a local chamber of commerce, or a local business association where your business information can be found, even if they are not linking at all to your website . You may also see the term "web references" used on other website's a synonym for "citations". Citations are a key component of the ranking algorithms of the major search engines. Other factors being equal, businesses with a greater number of citations will probably rank higher than businesses with fewer citations.
