Everyone loves a story and there is nothing better than being told a story.

Small Biz Podcast is a living business story each week – a mini audio business magazine. Bizpod is top of my list of podcasts on my iphone.

The podcast run by Alex Bellinger, covers subjects for small and medium size businesses as well as solopreneurs.

Each week’s podcast features interviews from around the business world and has included both big names and small like Rachel Elnaugh and Michael Gerber of e-Myth fame.

The difference

One of the main differences with other podcasts is that Alex interviews rather than just offering his opinion in a empty room.

Alex has a light hearted approach to interviewing which gets the best from interviewees and create meaty but very interesting content.

Past subjects have included social entrepreneurship, management buyouts and going solo – freelancing.

The podcasts normally end with a piece of electronica, a chance to hear something different to enlarge your musical tastes. Nice to take a break from the learning that pours out of my iPod normally.

The Michael Gerber interview was real food for the soul. His philosophy of life was well worth hearing and helped me clarify a few meaning of life issues as well as reminding me of the excellent e-myth teachings. Worth listening to even if you don’t regularly listen to podcasts.

Each 30-45 minute podcast is packed full of goodness and business thinking. My exercise routine is much enhanced by my weekly download of small biz pod.

Find It

You can find Small Biz Pod at www.SmallBizPod.co.uk where you can also find his blog.

Popularity: 60% [?]

Technorati Tags: E-Myth, Entrepreneurship, Michael Gerber, podcast review, Rachel Elnaugh, Small business, small business advice

Everyone loves free advertising – yet not many business are listed on one of the most important online business directory – Google Local. Probably because it is little understood and hidden away.

This article will take a look at

• Where you see Google Local in action
• How to sign up to Google Local
• How to get better rankings on Google Local

Where you see Google Local in action

If you were to search on Google for web design kings hill at the top of the page you will hopefully see something like the image below. You should see a nice map and listings of local businesses. If fact if your search is made up from company type and location you will normally see this type of listing.

This is an example of the Google Local data being used in the main search on Google.

If you have ever tried to find directions you may have used Google Maps. There is a map link at the top of your Google results or you can visit maps.google.com . If you enter a trade or profession in the search box you will again see companies list. This is from the Google Local Database.

Clicking on one of the business listing will show more detail about the company you have picked. This includes business hours, contact details, promotional videos, a link to your website and more importantly reviews from past customers.

If you look back to the initial example you might just make out next to the first listing it says ‘3 Reviews’ while the others just say more. The 3 reviews stands out and takes someone who clicks on it directly to the review section.

How to sign up to Google Local

To get signed up at Google Local visit the Google Local Business Centre and start the sign up process. Lets go step by step through the stages. First you need to either create a Google account or if you have one sign in .

If you are creating an account the next page asks for basic information and a password…

then where you live…

Your Google account can be used on all the other google sites like Google Adwords – for paid advertising or Google Analytics – for website visitor tracking.

Once you have either created an account or logged in, you should have screen offering you the choice of add new business or upload a data file. Click on Add new business.

Next you need to complete your company information. Once you enter the postcode/zip code your business will appear on the map on the right. If the position isn’t quite right then click on the fix incorrect marker location link which is under the map. This allows you to adjust the position of the pin that is placed on the map. You will be able to drag the marker around with the mouse.

Then add business categories to your listing. Look for all that apply.

Then add opening hours if required.

Nearly there… Now tick any payment methods you accept, upload any photos or graphics. If you have a logo in electronic form upload that now.

You also have the opportunity to upload up to 5 video links from Youtube. If you do not have any videos on youtube that promote your business you need to create at least one. Easy ways to do this will appear in future articles.

Finally you need to be able to confirm your listing. You can do this my phone, sms or postcard. Whichever method you pick you will receive a PIN code to enter into your listing. The process is quickest if you use the phone or sms method but lets look at the postcard method.

Once you click submit you will either get an SMS, an automatic phone call with the PIN code or a message as follows for the postcard option.

Look out for the postcard and enter the PIN code when you get it. Simply return to the Google Local Business Centre – find your listing and enter the pin.

If you are using the other methods you will have a screen that asks for the PIN code. Enter it and save the page. Job done.

Once you have entered the PIN code it can take 3-6 weeks for your listing to appear.

How to get better rankings on Google Local

How does the listing order of business work.

As with anything from Google no one really knows 100% how it works but it seems to be based on

• distance between your business location and the searcher
• how many reviews and the quality score on the reviews
• whether your website uses the location names on the pages
• whether other sites link to you using the business type and location
• other databases they have access to

You can’t influence the first one but you can ask your happy customers to review your work. Note the reviews appear quickly but the number of reviews on the main listing takes a while to catch up. Having reviews will get your listing clicked on more and hopefully give customers confidence to contact you.

You can add your business address to every page of your website and make sure the phone number appears on the site somewhere.

You can add a page to your site mentioning local or regional towns. Such as a "here are local areas we serve" page making sure to mention the services you provide on the same page. It could also go on a frequently asked questions page under the question ‘Which areas do you cover?’

If you have any other ideas how to use Google Local or wish to share your experience of it or comment on this article please use the box below. We would love to hear from you.

Popularity: 86% [?]

Technorati Tags: Google, Google local, Google Maps, Google Sites, promoting your business

Take a look at the basics of getting your website higher up in Google.

This video takes gives you an overview of the process know as Search Engine Optimisation – what it is? how it works? what to expect from a company doing search engine optimisation for your business.

It finishes with points to consider when doing your own optimisation or getting a company to do it for you.

Please feel free to comment on this video below.

Popularity: 48% [?]

Technorati Tags: search engine optimisation, SEO

The Business InSites podcast just be accepted by iTunes. You can now subscribe on your iPod,iTouch, iPhone etc by clicking on the picture below. Amazed how simple and quick the process was.

Popularity: 46% [?]

Technorati Tags: itunes, podcast

Quote From Duct Tape Marketing:

The preposterous sounding title of this post is a direct quote from the lips of many a small business owner I have encountered. The root of this problem of course can be summed up nicely in something known as Parkinson’s LawSmall Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing, Sep 2008

The whole article is well worth a read. It is all too easy to find time just disappearing as work gets in the way of the important but not urgent tasks in a day.

Popularity: 42% [?]

Technorati Tags: duct tape marketing, marketing ideas

Maybe you done this- you’ve searched on Google – found a likely website – clicked on it to find it is junk or poor quality. What do you do – click back to the search list and start again no doubt.

The degree of junkiness determines how quickly you click back and whether you click on any links or recommendations on the page.

It is a bit like the trust you put in different people’s recommendations. Some people you value their opinion highly others not so. So when you are creating any content it needs to be quality content if it is going to be any use.

Some of the tactics we recommend call for you create content on websites other than your own. When you are doing this you could spend the minimum of time to create this content but it will not perform very well for you.  It doesn’t have to be perfect – good enough is good enough.

Lets give you one example.

One very useful tactic is commenting on other websites where they allow it. You could comment something like "I love your site it was so cool." or you could read the page and make a useful comment. In this case someone will be approving the comments so junk is going to be history. But if it does get through no one is going to take any notice of it!

So don’t write anything that you are not proud to put your name to.

Popularity: 35% [?]

Technorati Tags: content quality, Search engine optimization, Web content, Web search engine

Page rank is a measure of popularity of a page used by Google. Ranging from 0 to 10.

Each page on a web site has it’s own rank.

Page rank is calculated based on the amount of links coming into a page of different page ranks. Each page votes for another page by linking to it.

Google is now though to keep different page ranks based on topic area rather than just the one you can find out.

Page rank can be seen on the google tool bar or various page rank checking sites.

The Page rank that is shown is updated infrequently.

While important in indicating the weight of a page it is not something to be obsessed by.

Popularity: 36% [?]

Technorati Tags: Google, page rank

Ever felt that seeing only 10 search results on Google wasn’t enough?

Did you know you can see up to 100 in one go?

This can be very frustrating especially if you are search for your websites at position 91 in the list.

The secret is a link next to the search box on Google called Preferences.

Click on it and you have a range of options. Look for the number of results section.

Change the setting to 20,30,50 or 100 to see more. While you are there have a look at some of the other options available like safesearch and maybe searching for english only pages.

Enjoy….

Popularity: 30% [?]

Technorati Tags: google tips, productivity

BusinessInsites aims to provide small and medium size business with practical advice on how to market themselves online and how to use the Internet for business.

Using a mix of videos, pdfs, action lists, slide shows we want to raise your level knowledge and/or skill level about how the Internet works for your business.

First we want to help you understand the bigger picture of how to market your business online. Then we want to offer you the tools to do something about it or to get someone to help you do something about it.

Coming Up

At least three major series of articles

Google Starter - Showing you how you get displayed in Google Search Results and how to improve on it.

Savvy Internet Businessperson – Showing you how the Internet is developing and what key websites can do for your business.

Advanced Topics - In at the deep end for those a little more technically aware.

In addition to the series there will be standalone articles. In production are

• How to check your Google Rankings
• Google Webmaster tools – a hide resource
• Using Twitter for Business
• Using Facebook for Business
• and much more

In case you get lost in terminology we will be launching a dynamic glossary so no-one gets left behind.

If you have any topics you would like us to cover then please leave a comment below.

Membership Section

There will also be a membership section in the next few weeks. This will provide extra information and action plans for our clients. (see www.websitseinbusiness.co.uk)

Our websites are designed as marketing platforms with a lot of features to make online marketing easier. The extra advice will be based on using one of our sites initially. 

However once our clients are served we plan to add more detail for those without the advantages of our websites and then open this up to non-clients at a later stage.

Popularity: 37% [?]

Technorati Tags: about us, articles, website launch

 

 Google Starter Series Part 1 [9:53m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (132)

Part 1  – the Google Starter Series

Everyone wants to be number one on Google.

The Google Starter series takes you step by step through the process you need to follow to take a new site into Google and get great rankings.

These videos are aimed a small to medium businesses and their owners to give them the ability to understand how Google search works and what needs doing to improve things. My aim is to give you the confidence to do it yourself or to know what you need someone else to do.

Contents Part One

First we look at whether Google knows about your site and how much it knows.

View Part Two – Improving search engine rankings

We welcome your comments and ratings below.

Resources:

Slides, additional notes and action plan download

 When searching for your ranking you might like to check out the Tip on seeing more than 10 results in Google.

Popularity: 44% [?]

Technorati Tags: Google, google starter, ranking, search results, SEO