build the perfect optimized page

This is a challenging question for many in the SEO and web marketing fields. There are hundreds of "best practices" lists for where to place keywords and how to do "on-page optimization," but as search engines have evolved and as other sources of traffic — social networks, referring links, email, blogs, etc. — have become more important and interconnected, the very nature of what's "optimal" is up for debate.

My perspective is certainly not gospel, but it's informed by years of experience, testing, failure, and learning alongside a lot of metrics from Moz's phenomenal data science team. I don't think there's one absolute right way to optimize a page, but I do think I can share a lot about the architecture of how to target content and increase the likelihood that it will:

• A) Have the best opportunity to rank highly in Google and Bing
• B) Earn traffic from social networks like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.
• C) Be worthy of links and shares from across the web
• D) Build your brand's perception, trust, and potential to convert visitors

With the help of some graphics from CreativeMarket (which I highly recommend), I created a number of visualizations to explain how I think about modern on-page optimization and keyword targeting. Let's start with a graphical overview of what makes a page optimized:

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In the old days of SEO, "on-page optimization" referred merely to keyword placement. Search engines liked to see keywords in certain locations of the HTML code to help indicate a page's relevance for that query. But today, this simple approach won't cut it for two key reasons:

1. The relevancy and keyword-based algorithms that Google and Bing use to evaluate and rank pages are massively more complex.
2. Gaining a slight benefit in a keyword placement-based algorithmic element may harm overall rankings because of how it impacts people's experience with your site (and thus, their propensity to stay on your pages, link to you, or share your content socially — all of which are also directly or indirectly considered in ranking algorithms).

Below is a pie-chart breakdown of how the 128 SEO professionals surveyed for Moz's annual ranking factors projectrated broad algorithmic elements' impact in Google:

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If <15% of the rankings equation is wrapped up in keyword targeting, no wonder smart SEOs in the modern era have evolved to think more holistically. Personally, I'm happy to sacrifice "perfect" keyword placement in the title element or a URL for better user experience, a higher chance of having my content shared on social networks, or a better click-through rate in the search results.

But, for the purposes of this post, let's put some of those caveats aside and dive into the best practices for each element of a page. It may be unwise to optimize all of these purely towards search engine-based best practices, but we can temper the advice with notes on usability and user experience for visitors, too. Below, I've attempted to go tag by tag, and element by element through the keyword targeting and on-page optimization canon to expand on the more basic advice in the "Elements of an Optimized Page" graphic above.

Uniquely valuable

An optimized page doesn't just provide unique content, but unique value. What's the difference?

• Unique content simply means that those words, in that order, don't appear anywhere else on the web.
• Unique value refers to the usefulness and takeaways derived by visitors to the page. Many pages can be "valuable," but few provide a truly unique kind of value — one that can't be discovered on other pages targeting that keyword phrase.

Whenever I advise marketers on crafting pages, I ask them to put themselves in the minds of their potential visitors, and imagine a page that provides something so different and functional that it rises above everything else in its field. Here are a few of my favorite examples:

• The Baby Name Wizard — a terrific page that provides clear value above and beyond its competition for searches around baby names.
• How Much Does a Website Cost — Folyo surveyed their designers to create a distribution of prices that accurate, credible, and massively valuable to those seeking data on pricing.
• Scale of the Universe — this interactive feature will take you from the tiniest parts of an atom all the way to universe-scale. No wonder it ranks for such abstract queries as "the size of things."
• The Best Instant Noodles of All Time — The Ramen Rater has tried literally thousands of packets of instant noodles and determined these ten to be the outstanding few. I'm actually excited to try them :-)
• Top Social Networks by Users — Craig Smith puts together an update to this list every month or two, and has compiled this invaluable resource to help those of us wondering just how big all the networks are these days. I've personally used this for numerous posts and presentations — it's an excellent example of creating unique value by aggregating data from varied sources (and it, deservedly, outranks stalwarts like Nielsen as a result).

Unique value is much more than unique content, and when you have a page that rises to the level that these do, social shares, links, and all the other positive associations, branding, and ranking signals are apt to follow.

Provides phenomenal UX

A user's experience is made up of a vast array of elements, not unlike the search engines' ranking algorithms. Satisfying all of these perfectly may not be possible, but reaching for a high level will not only provide value in rankings, but through second-order impacts like shares, links, and word-of-mouth.

At the most basic level, a great UX means the page/site is:

• Easy to understand
• Providing intuitive navigation and content consumption
• Loading quickly, even on slower connections (like mobile)
• Rendering properly in any browser size and on any device
• Designed to be visually attractive/pleasing/compelling

Smashing Magazine has my favorite article on the subject: What is User Experience Design? Overview, Tools, and Resources.

Crawler/bot accessible

Search engines still crawl the web using automated bots, and probably will for at least the next decade or more. While there have been plenty of leaps in the sophistication level of these crawlers, the best practice is not to take chances and follow some important guidelines when building pages you want engines to crawl, index, and rank reliably:

• Make sure the page is the only URL on which the content appears, and if it's not, all other URLs canonicalize back to the original (using redirects or the rel=canonical protocol)
• URLs should follow best practices around length, being static vs. dynamic, and being included in any appropriate RSS feeds or XML Sitemaps files
• Don't block bots! Robots.txt and meta robots can be used to intelligently limit what engines see, but be cautious not to make errors that prevent them from crawling and indexing your content.
• If the page is temporarily down, use a status code 503 (not a 404), and if you're redirecting a page to a new location, don't go through multiple redirect chains if possible, and use 301s (permanent redirects), not other kinds of 30x status codes.

Geoff Kenyon's Technical Site Audit Checklist is still one of the best resources for those seeking more in-depth information about crawler-based accessibility.

Keyword-targeted

As I mentioned in the opening of this post, it may be the case that perfectly optimized keyword targeting conflicts with goals around usability, user experience, or the natural flow of how you write. That's OK, and frequently, I'd suggest leaning in those more user-centric directions. However, when it's possible to optimize keyword usage, you'll need some ammunition. Here's a look at the most important elements as we've observed them through time, testing, correlation, and listening to the engine's recommendations, too.

7 important keyword targeting elements (and 1 not-so-important element)

#1: Page title

Using the primary keyword phrase at least once in the page's title, and preferably as close to the start of the title tag/element as possible is highly recommended. Not only are titles key to how engines weigh relevance, they also dramatically impact a searcher's propensity to click.

Above is an example comparing some title elements for the search query "lip balm." The tag for allure.com is more compelling from the perspective of fulfilling the searcher's intent (which is likely to compare multiple blams vs. find a specific one), but it also puts the keyword in prime, eye-catching real estate on the results page. We have seen evidence and heard the engines themselves discuss the value/importance of earning clicks and preventing "pogo-sticking" (the bouncing of a visitor back to a search page after clicking a result). Optimizing for both keyword prominence AND user intent/visibility is an excellent idea.

#2: Headline

While we've seen mixed results over the years with using the H1 tag specifically for keyword placement, it's almost certainly the case that a searcher who's just clicked on a results expects to see a matching headline on the page they visit. Failure to do so may increase the odds of pogo-sticking, and our most recent rank correlations suggest that a topically relevant H1 is associated with higher rankings.

I wouldn't always require a match between the title and the H1 precisely, but they shouldn't be so dissimilar as to drive anyone who's clicked away from the result.

#3: Body text

It should come as no surprise that using your primary (and secondary, if relevant) keyword phrase(s) in the content of the page are important. Our research suggests that it's not just about raw keyword use or repetition, though. Search engines are almost certainly using advanced topic modeling algorithms to assess relevance and perhaps quality, too.

This means it's wise to make your content comprehensive, useful, and relevant as possible, not just filled with instance of a keyword. In fact, we've observed plenty of cases where the overuse of keywords resulted in a negative impact on rankings, so be judicious. If you asked a non-marketing friend to read the page, would they get the sense that a term or phrase was suspiciously prominent, sometimes needlessly so? If that's the case, you're probably overdoing it.

#4: URL

A good URL has a few key aspects, but one of those is keyword use. Not only does it help with search engine relevancy directly, but URLs often get used as anchor text around the web (mostly through copying and pasting). For example, if I link to this post using its URL, e.g. http://moz.com/blog/visual-guide-to-keyword-targeting-onpage-optimization, the phrases "keyword targeting" and "onpage optimization" appear right in the text.

For more best practices on URLs, check out our learn article on the topic.

#5: Images and image alt attributes

Having images on a keyword-targeted page is wise for many, many reasons, not least among them is that these can help directly and indirectly with rankings. Most directly, your image has an opportunity to show up in an image search result. Granted, Google's new interface has dramatically lowered the traffic from image search, but I still find great value in having your brand name/site associated with production of useful graphics, photos, and visual elements.

For search engines, the image's title, filename, surrounding text, and alt attribute all matter from a ranking perspective. In particular, those doing SEO should know that when an image is linked, the alt attribute is treated similarly to anchor text in a text link.

#6: Internal and external links

A good page should be accessible through no more than four clicks from any other page on a site (three for smaller sites), and it should, likewise, provide useful links to relevant information on any topics that are discussed.

Some SEOs have, in the past, questioned whether linking externally, especially to sites/pages that might compete for a visitor's time/attention or a search engine's rankings is wise. I believe the nail in that coffin was delivered byMarshall Simmonds in his Whiteboard Friday Interview noting the value the NYTimes saw from their implementation of external links. Since then, search engine representatives have subtly hinted on multiple occasions that there are elements in the algorithm which reward external links to quality sites/pages.

#7: Meta description

A page's meta description isn't used directly in search engine ranking algorithms (according to representatives from Google and Bing), but that doesn't mean they're not critical. The meta description tag, if it employs the keyword query, usually shows up in the search results, and is part of what searchers consider when deciding whether to click.

As you can see from the snippet above, when keywords appear in the meta description, they also get bolded, which can help with visibility. The primary goal of a meta description should be to earn the searcher's click. Think of them like ad copy, and work to make searchers care about your page.

#8: Meta keywords

Notably absent from this list is the Meta Keywords tag, which Google does not use in rankings, and we, along with many others (including SearchEngineLand) recommend against employing on your pages.

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The reason it's so important to balance these keyword-targeting demands with other attributes of on-page optimization is illustrated below:

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As you can see, while on-page features like keyword use in titles, keywords, and body text (even when measured via a more sophisticated and higher correlating model than just raw usage like our data science team did in the ranking factors) have reasonable correlations given the complexity of Google's rankings, other elements are found much more often in higher- vs. lower-ranking pages.

If social shares, brand mentions, links, and domain authority all potentially trump keyword-based factors as differentiators, marketers need to make sure we're hitting the basics of on-page, but never extending in such a way that interferes with our ability to succeed in these other avenues.

Built to be shared through social networks

Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, and dozens more social networks that are niche-focused can help earn signals that help rankings directly and/or indirectly (often through exposure to folks who might link to them).

A well-optimized page should help to make social sharing as easy and seamless as possible, including:

• Using obvious social sharing buttons that are targeted to the page's audience. Don't just list every network on the web — be empathetic and predictive of what your visitors are likely to employ.
• Craft URLs that are short and descriptive so that copying/pasting (for those who prefer) is painless, and whenever/wherever those links appear they provide a good UX for those seeing them. This is particularly important across more niche social sites, forums, and Facebook/Google+ (which use full URLs if the length is short rather than the condensed versions that Twitter uses).
• Make content that has inherent viral value. Think about a social influencer and ask yourself, "would I share this page if I came across it?" Find ways to make that answer yes. One of the best is to build pages that will make social sharers themselves look good to their audiences (either because the page helps promote them directly/indirectly or because the unique value is so compelling, their followers/fans will be indebted to them for finding it).
• If possible and relevant, employ features like Twitter Cards and Facebook's OpenGraph markup to get the additional benefits on those networks.

Given how the reach of social networks have grown, how well social shares correlate positively to higher search rankings, and how those correlations have risen over time, there's a lot of value in making sure your pages have an opportunity to perform socially.

Multi-device ready

Although it was called out in the UX section, this principle is worthy of its own headline due to the increasing diversity of devices, browsers, and screen sizes. Mobile use isn't just critical for users "on the go." Many are using mobile or tablets to browse at home, at work, and as a replacement for laptop/desktop. And they're not just consuming — they're sharing! Social sharing in particular is a huge part of mobile & tablet functions, which means that if you're not optimized for all devices, you're missing critical opportunities for amplification to a broader audience.

Inclusive of authorship, metadata, schema, and rich snippets

There are a vast array of options that provide additional markup that engines may employ in their listings. Rather than try to list all of them, I'll link to resources with more information on each:

• Google offers the rel=author and rel=publisher options to display a profile/brand image and details alongside results.
• Bing has a similar service called "linked pages" to show profiles with results.
• Google also provides a vast array of options for rich snippets, many of those come via schema.org markup, which show in various ways alongside, above, or below search results. They provide a nice tool for testing those snippets here.
• Several options also exist directly through a page's meta data that Google & Bing employ.

Moz's marketing scientist, Dr. Pete, recently put together a slide deck showing 90+ unique forms of search results, many of which leverage rich forms of markup (though only a few of these are in the control of the marketer/creator).

My recommendation is to apply those that both match the opportunities provided by the engines and the techniques that will give value to your potential visitors. Be cautious of going overboard — there's a bit of rich snippet spam that serves only to leave a bad taste in searchers' mouths and may hurt your reputation or rankings with the engines themselves, too.

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Choosing how to optimize

One important takeaway from this post should be that modern on-page SEO is about juggling competing priorities. In general, my recommended ordering of those priorities is as follows:

1. Create a page that is uniquely valuable to your targeted searchers.
2. If at all possible, make the page likely to earn links and shares naturally (without needing to build links or prod people).
3. Balance keyword targeting with usability and user experience, but never ignore the critical elements like page titles, headlines, and body content at the least.

There's no such thing as a "perfectly optimized" page, but I took a stab at drawing up the mythical beast anyway:

Read the complete article from the man himself here http://ht.ly/2CxUD8

August 6th, 2013 - Posted by Rand Fishkin to On-Page / Site Optimization

Search Matters

You’ve heard these acronyms flying around. But what the heck are they? Why do they matter to you as a small business or website owner? They matter because we live in a world where Google is a verb (not just a company).

The Internet is the first place most people, including your potential customers, will go to search for anything they’re looking for. The bottom line is that you want them to find you!

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of controlling how your website appears in organic (unpaid) search results, as well as improving your organic search ranking. In other words, on which page and how high up on the results each of your site’s pages (the title and description) will appear.

Still confused? It might help to think of it this way: SEACRH ENGINES have their own language And you want organize your website in a way that search engines understand so that they can provide you with the best possible results for your keywords.

Intro to SEO

The best way to tackle SEO is to first get started with creating your website and your content, then to start optimizing. Because, at the end of the day, it’s user who will be reading your website.

The goal is not to sound like a robot so that the robot understands you. It’s about finding a balance between the reader and the search engine bots so that those looking for your products and services can find your website easily.

After you’ve finished creating your website and added content, you are ready to start optimizing. Here are four basic action items to consider:

1. Content
The best thing you can do to create a great site is to start with great content. Tell people about your business or products in a clear and concise way that will make them interested. Include hd images that are related to your products or content.

Think about the sites you shop on. Do you prefer to interact with sites that are visually pleasing and easy to navigate? Does your site contain enough information to entice a site visitor to make an inquiry or purchase decision?

Have a friend (or two) read what you’ve written and see how it’s laid out. Try to find people who don’t already know what you are trying to accomplish for a clean perspective. Ask them specific questions like “what do you think I’m selling?” or “where, on the site, do you want to go now?”

3. Metadata


Once your URL’s and page names are in place, you should edit your metadata, or the information about your pages. The page titles and descriptions within your metadata are what control how your page information appears in search results. It also allows you to specify important keywords for your site or business.

For your images, you’ll want to include a description of the image in the ALT tag. Search engines cannot read the picture, therefore, you will need to add a short description of the image in the tag. You can also include your keywords in these tags.

4. SEO Tools
There are plenty of SEO tools available to you that can help you optimize your SEO, like Moz.com or Jungle Torch  which scans all your pages and tells you where to make changes or improvements to help your search rankings.

You receive a grade for every item and can click each one to see the errors. For example, you might have forgotten to put alternative text on your images, or missed a Meta tag on one of your pages, or maybe you need more content. As you fix errors, you can rescan your site periodically to see your grade improve. And don’t forget to publish your site when you are done

Why Go Local | Map Optimization

Now that you have a website, a product or service to sell… are you getting customers when they are ready to buy? Are these customers finding your website before or after they see your competitor’s offer? You really need highly targeted customers, and you need to apply cutting-edge local internet marketing strategies to stay ahead of your competition. However, you just don’t have either the time, patience or the right knowledge for the precise, time-consuming process of setting up a powerful local maps optimization campaign.

That’s why many local businesses miss out on the power of the Internet to enroll new customers and make more profits. This is the main reason we decided to take care of ALL the details by providing the expertise needed to make your local maps optimization campaign a smashing success. Map search, also called local search, is a growing online market. As always, Google is the leader of this movement and, by including Map results within the regular search results, for local search queries, exposure in Google Maps became more important than ever. Yahoo! Local and Bing Maps are close to Google and provide great results, too. Thus, more than ever, local maps optimization has become an important part of the SEO strategy and, wherever possible, The Main aim is to achieve high rankings in both Maps and organic results on the same search page. Needless to say, this strategy will boosts your business brand power and credibility in the eyes of your potential local clients – and that translates into more sales and profits. You might not know about it, but Google uses different algorithms for ranking sites in the Maps results, Mobile results and in the regular organic search results. Some Companies knows what it takes to get noticed on the Google Maps listings. What Are Local Search Engine Results And Why Do You Need To Use A Specialized Local Maps Optimization Service? When people use a search engine like Google, Yahoo! or Bing and type in a query “dentist san francisco ca” they are performing a local search – obviously, their intention is to find a dentist in San Francisco. In most of the cases, performing a search like this will bring three kinds of results: you will be shown top paid results (advertisements – AdWords), local maps and free organic results. As a business owner you need to make all the efforts to work toward having your website on top of the search results listing for your relevant products and/or services in your local area, in both organic and local results, so that customers will find you offer FIRST! If you’ve just heard about local maps search, you’ve probably asked yourself one of these questions: - How do I get my business to appear in local maps results? - Why do some businesses show up in the organic listings for local searches while others don’t? - How do I get my customers to leave me reviews and give me stars? - How do I add photos or videos to my local business listing? - How do I make changes to my local business listing? - How do I take control of my local business listing? - How do I change the category I’m listed in? - How does search engines rank local businesses? - How do I get a top local rankings for my business? Your position on top of the local searches will bring customers literally to your doorstep; this way you don’t annoy them with unwanted advertising – instead, you’ll help them fulfill their current need. This is a win-win situation and has been proven to be one of the most cost-effective and satisfying way to advertise.

AlignGo Answers Some Difficult Social Media Questions

More businesses are exploring the advantage of using social media tools and sites to help grow their business.  Many of these efforts aren't effective, that may be due to many businesses simply misunderstanding what social media is also why it's so important!

First, what exactly is social media? Asking 10 people might get you 10 different answers, but to keep it simple, lets say that social media is a group of tools that let you create and share content online. Blogs, social networks, and video's are the common forms of social media that most of us are at least somewhat familiar with.

The problem that many businesses have, is how they view social media.  Many businesses (of all sizes) see social media sites as new channels to publish content into. In other words, they view social media as being marketing channels.

In reality this couldn't be further from the truth.

Notice in the above definition of social media, We said that these sites and tools are ways to create and share content. Why use the word 'share' instead of 'publish' or 'distribute'

Because sharing implies interaction. Publishing and distributing implies one-way channels. Social media is rooted in sharing content. It can be content you have created, it can be content that someone else has created, but as a whole, social media sites and tools are so popular because of how people are sharing and interacting with content.

So then the question becomes, how can businesses use social media effectively?

By creating more value for the people that interact with your content, than you receive back from them.

So your focus changes from 'what can I get from social media', to 'how can I use these tools to give value to others?'. It sounds completely counterintuitive, I know. But remember again that social media is rooted in sharing. In order to start sharing, you have to create content that others can FIRST find value in. That prompts them to want to share that content with other people.

Hint: That content isn't advertising. For example, we won't find much value in a blog post telling us about the sales your nursery is having on lawncare products this week. But if you post 'Ten Ways to Have a Gorgeous Lawn by the Fourth of July!' on your blog, THAT is content that we can find value in. Since we would likely find value in your second post, that makes it far more likely that we will share that post with other people, which helps promote your lawncare business.

You create value for us with the 'Ten Ways' blog post, which prompts us to promote your post (and by extension, your business), and that creates value for you.

If you want to use social media to grow your business, always remember that your goal is to use these tools and sites to create more value than you receive. Think sharing instead of publishing. Think communication instead of marketing.

The more value you can create for others with social media, the more value you will receive back as a result. But it all starts with creating and sharing value, not extracting.

Websites for Iowa businesses' Free at That......

Google’s Iowa Get Your Business Online program makes it easy
for Iowa businesses to build an online presence.

DES MOINES, IA - Today Google joins with the State of Iowa and a host of other national and local Iowa partners to launch Iowa Get Your Business Online. Designed to help drive economic growth, the new program provides Iowa businesses with the tools and resources to establish a website, find new customers, and grow their businesses.

Iowa Get Your Business Online provides a fast and easy way for Iowa businesses to build an online presence. Google is partnering with Intuit to provide its popular Intuit Websites offering for free, which includes an easy-to-build website, a customized domain name, and web-hosting for one year. Participating Iowa businesses will also receive a local business listing on Google Places, along with free tools, trainings and resources to grow their business online.

Getting online represents an immense economic opportunity for Iowa businesses. While 97% of Americans look online for local products and services, 59% of Iowa small businesses do not have a website. That means that many small businesses are virtually invisible to potential customers looking online. One reason many small businesses haven’t taken the first step is the perception that getting online is complex, costly, and time-consuming.

“One of the best ways we can help small businesses and the economy is to help Iowa businesses increase their visibility online,” said Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds. “This enables them to find new customers and sell more products and services. Google chose to invest $600 million dollars in their state of the art data center in Council Bluffs because it continues to be a center of commerce. As part of their ongoing commitment to Iowa, they have decided to bring this event here and help Iowa businesses grow.”

“Today’s consumers are looking online for products and services, and it’s so important for Iowa’s small businesses to meet those customers online,” says Mary Himinkool, Head of Global Entrepreneurship Outreach at Google. “We’re here in Iowa to not only show business owners that there’s a huge opportunity to expand their business online, but to also provide the guidance to help them do it successfully.”

“As a leading provider of small business solutions, we have witnessed the growth small businesses have seen from getting online,” said Ralph Matlack, Group Product Manager at Intuit. “We are excited to offer Intuit Websites for free to all the wonderful small businesses in Iowa and to help them create a customized presence that represents their unique brands.”

“Technology and the internet are becoming very important to the growth of small businesses in Iowa. The Iowa SBDC is proud and excited to partner with Google and other Iowa resource partners to help Iowa businesses take advantage of the power of the internet” says Jim Heckmann, Iowa SBDC State Director.

"Every day we see more and more people realize that meeting face-to-face to collaborate is by far the best way to get things done." said Mary Telesco, VP of Meetup. "There are thousands of Small Business Meetup members helping each other succeed every day by connecting with one another, in-person. That is exactly why we are thrilled to partner with Google on this initiative —–-— small business owners getting online together better than going at it alone!”

Businesses can get online by visiting www.IowaGetOnline.com, or by attending one of the many Google-hosted events throughout the state.

The first of several events for small businesses will be held in Des Moines on September 12-13 at the FFA Enrichment Center, in Council Bluffs on September 15 at the Mid-America Center, in Waterloo on September 16 at the Waterloo Center for the Arts, in Cedar Falls on September 27 at the University of Northern Iowa, and in Pella on September 30 at the Royal Amsterdam Hotel. At these events, small businesses can attend sessions from Google, as well as ongoing workshops from Intuit that walk attendees through the process of setting up their free websites in real time. Iowa businesses who cannot attend the events can visit www.IowaGetOnline.com to quickly and easily get online today. The program will be available online for a year.

The Iowa Get Your Business Online program is made possible by Google in partnership with Intuit, Association of Small Business Development Centers, Meetup, SCORE, Iowa Association of Business and Industry, Iowa Chamber Alliance, Iowa Economic Development Authority, Iowa Small Business Development Center, Central Iowa Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners, Council Bluffs Area Chamber of Commerce, Des Moines Area Community College, Greater Cedar Valley Alliance and Chamber, Greater Des Moines Partnership, Iowa Area Development Group, Iowans for Social & Economic Development, John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Centers, MyEntre.net, Southwest Iowa Coalition, University Northern Iowa Regional Business Center, and VentureNet Iowa.

About Iowa Get Your Business Online

Iowa Get Your Business Online is a joint initiative by Google, Intuit, Association of Small Business Development Centers, Meetup, SCORE, Iowa Association of Business and Industry, Iowa Chamber Alliance, Iowa Economic Development Authority, Iowa Small Business Development Center, Central Iowa Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners, Council Bluffs Area Chamber of Commerce, Des Moines Area Community College, Greater Cedar Valley Alliance and Chamber, Greater Des Moines Partnership, Iowa Area Development Group, Iowans for Social & Economic Development, John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Centers, MyEntre.net, Southwest Iowa Coalition, University Northern Iowa Regional Business Center, VentureNet Iowa and other business organizations providing complementary resources to help small businesses get online and take advantage of the economic opportunities offered through the Internet. The program aims to help tens of thousands of Iowa businesses get online over the next 12 months. Via  original site here

Ten Reasons To Google Places

 

 

1. Online advertising like Google Places is the way of the future, and it will soon replace paper phone directory listings that cost thousands of dollars per year.

2. Google Places is free.

3. When your Google Places listing is optimized properly, your business listing appears on the first page of Google.

4. You can offer discounts and coupons for one day, one week, or one month.

5. Your website, physical mailing address, and your phone number are displayed in your listing, which allows customers to find you more quickly and to get the information they need.

6. Mobile phone users can find your business listing immediately, and they don’t need a computer to do it.

7. You will receive more traffic and new customers.

8. You don’t need a physical retail or warehouse location to get accepted into Google Places.

9. By using citations and reviews, your Google Places will move up in ranking. With high ranking, within eight weeks, rather than eight months or eight years, your free advertising with Google Places will bring you more targeted customers faster than traditional organic methods.

10. Finally, and the most important to your financial goals, is that because it is so easy for customers to find your business listing, you will make more money than you did before your business was listed in Google Places.

You Can Be The Change Take it From Foursquare Co-Founder