The Direct Online Marketing™ Blog

Through the Local Search-Looking iPad Glass »
Posted on January 28th, 2010 by Paul Woodhouse in Google - SEO, Local Search | 1 Comment

More useful: iPad or eyepad?

Apple has performed a great service for those of us who have ruined our eyesight using their iPhone and iPod Touch late at night under the bed covers with the iPad. It’s like the large print hard back novel you get in libraries for senior citizens.

Forget about the puerile derision and scorn poured upon the device all over the Web yesterday during its announcement pertaining to high-tech feminine hygiene. That’s so high school.

I remember fondly the Christmas before last my 90 year old grandmother and three year old niece taking turns on my iPod Touch needing little or no explanation as to how to use it having never set eyes on one before.

These devices, along with Google’s mobile platform, Android, and Microsoft’s rumored Zune phone as part of its three screens and a cloud strategy point to a great opportunity for small businesses on small devices and local SEO.

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TAGS: Android, Google Goggles, Google Maps, iPad

Free Google AdWords for One Lucky Small Business »
Posted on January 12th, 2010 by Justin Seibert in DOM News, Google Adwords, Online Marketing | 4 Comments

This Thursday I begin my first regular teaching role at West Liberty University.  Not bad for the kid whom the woman in Vanderbilt’s registrar office told he had the 2nd lowest graduating GPA she’d ever seen.  Okay, that was my roommate.  But you’re still talking about the guy whose brother mockingly nicknamed him “Our Scholar.” Even my dear mother got into the act.  While visiting New Orleans one year, my folks noticed a panhandler wearing a Vanderbilt t-shirt.  When my father wondered aloud what his major was, my mother quipped “sociology.”

So while it’s somewhat odd to be teaching, I’m excited. I’m also honored that the College of Business approached me to teach their ecommerce course, which they wanted taught by someone with real world experience.  Which leads to the title of this post and how you can get you some sweet, gooey, delicious Google AdWords.  Num, num, num.

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TAGS: adwords, capitalism, do no evil, free beer, google online marketing challenge, michael moore, skittles-covered-hotcakes, sociology degrees, Vanderbilt

Happy (and Safe) New Year »
Posted on December 31st, 2009 by Justin Seibert in DOM News, Local Search, Social Media | 1 Comment

A quick note of thanks to all our clients, employees, partners, and friends who contributed to making 2009 our company’s finest year. We’ve made huge gains as a company that would not have been possible without everyone’s support. We look to even bigger things in 2010, including some new offerings regarding local SEO that we’ll be announcing early in Q1.

Please bring in the New Year safely and enjoy New Year’s.  If you’re into football be sure to root on the Mountaineers of West Virginia and Commodores of Vanderbilt.  I guess two wins (over Rice and a non-NS directional Carolina school) don’t get you to a New Year’s Day bowl.

Check back next week as we’re going to be doing some posts about social media optimization, including reasons why you might NOT want to jump into the social media waters and what CMO’s should do when the President of your organization says he saw a news anchor with a twitter account, so we need one, too!

TAGS: local seo, social media optimization, twitter, vanderbilt football, west virginia, WVU

Understanding Local Search from Pittsburgh PA to Pittsbug KS »
Posted on December 16th, 2009 by Justin Seibert in Google - SEO, Google Adwords, Local Search, Microsoft adCenter, SEO, Search Engines, Yahoo Search Marketing | 4 Comments

Many of our clients (and readers) are concerned with getting traffic and buyers from throughout the United States or from all over the world.  An increasing number of small businesses, larger locally-based organizations, and huge conglomerates with multiple brick-and-mortar locations are starting to realize just how powerful search engine marketing can be for their local markets.

I think we’ve talked quite a bit about the geo-targeting capabilities of pay per click accounts like Google AdWords (although it bears repeating that you can draw any kind of coverage map you’d like, including picking a 20-mile radius around your physical location).  And while the ability to place AdWords ads within local business listings is potentially interesting, that option is still in beta for folks in the San City Twins (San Francisco and San Diego).

What we’ve been somewhat remiss in discussing (at least me, maybe not Paul as much) is local SEO.  So, whether you’re looking for a Pittsburgh SEO firm or to rank in Pittsburg, Kansas, this article will explain a bit about how the process works.  Many of these same principles work in other countries as well as we’ve used them on clients in the UK and Germany, but let’s focus here on the good ol’ U.S. of A. for simplicity’s sake.  Learn more after the jump.

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TAGS: bing local listings, google 7-pack, highlights magazine, legal seo, local business listings, local seo, pittsburgh seo, small business seo, yahoo local listings

Free Google AdWords Audits »
Posted on December 4th, 2009 by Justin Seibert in DOM News, Google Adwords, Microsoft adCenter, PPC, Paid Search, SEM, Search Engines, Yahoo Search Marketing | 6 Comments

Just a quick housekeeping note: we wanted to announce a site we launched offering free Google AdWords audits. Good for Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter, too, but AdWords seems to be the one most people are interested in since it takes about 2/3 of the market and usually more than that out of an advertiser’s pay per click budget.

It’s pretty low key – no fees, no contract, no obligation.  We’ll even sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement.  Just give us access to your account and we’ll grade how well you’re doing and give you some tips on how to optimize your paid search accounts for better ROI.  And hey – if it turns out you’d like to have us do some work for you, too, well that would just be peachy. 

On that note, I also wanted to point out that you can get varying levels of help on your pay per click accounts based on your needs and budgets.

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TAGS: google adwords, Microsoft adCenter, pay per click management, ppc audits, Yahoo! Search Markeeting

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