1) Is there a hot product that you haven’t noticed because you’re too busy trying to run your business?
Did you not know that people were already selling model X-2011 already?
Competitive Intelligence can help fill that gap: Order model X-2011

2) Do you sell a great product but people refer to it by another name?
Are you selling “horses” and calling them “mounts”?
No one will find you; no one searches for ‘mounts’ when they are looking for a ‘horse’.
Competitive Intelligence can help you with that: Change your copy.

3) Is there an area you have not explored that your competitors have?
Are you only selling gold jewelry and your competitors thought to sell beaded jewelry? Your customers would never buy that!
They are already buying it. From your competitor! Perhaps you should stock it.

There are endless examples.
Competitive analysis can help you fill the holes in your research and get a leg up on the competition. Don’t reinvent the wheel- learn from others.

For marketers and businesses, Google Maps is an extension of SEO. For businesses whose customer base is primarily local, Google Maps may be a more important source of traffic than traditional organic SEO or pay per click marketing.
Lawyers, doctors, hotels and restaurants are all examples of businesses that need a presence on Google Maps to stay competitive.
E-commerce companies, wholesalers, and warehouses usually do not need Google Maps to stay competitive

local search results

Google Maps and Universal Search
Google maps is an aspect of what is called “universal search”. Google maps attempts to identify businesses close in location to the searcher. If I need a lawyer and search for “lawyer” or I want a pizza and I search for “pizza”, it is likely that a business down the street will be much more relevant than a lawyer in New York or Ukraine.
For certain searches, local results are better.

How does Google know I want a Local Business?
There seems to be at least two conditions that need to be satisfied for Google Maps to be triggered:
1) The search phrase must contain a city name: e.g, San Diego Lawyer, Surgeon in Minneapolis, etc.
2) The search is for a business-related item. You can’t just search for “San Diego X” or “X San Diego”. X has to match a database of words. Lawyer, surgeon, pizza, hotels are all business-related, so Google-Maps triggers if you enter one of these phrases. “San Diego Rattlesnake” does not trigger Google Maps.

What Does This Have to do With My Business?
Submitting your business to Google Maps can help you gain visibility when people perform these “local searches”.

If people see you on Google Maps, they could clickthrough to your website and end up as customers. This has to be the easiest search optimization technique to use to help market your business. Obviously, the “trick” is to do it right.

You only get seen if you are in positions A-J (the top 10).

The Problem
Google has not resigned to the fact that Google maps is the domain of marketers.
As such, they have enforced very strict rules against attempts to optimize Google Maps. More than any other area of search marketing, it is better for you to be conservative- no keyword stuffing.

Conclusion
Submit a map, or hire someone to submit a Google Map for you. If you still desire more visibility, and wish to be aggressive in your marketing, look into altering your SEO and PPC efforts.

The List

1) Common sense-This one is often overlooked. If a grocery store solicited my help I know a ton of their keywords because I have seen a grocery store.

2) Keyword tools- Google Adwords Keywords tool and Yahoo both have free keyword tools with real data from searches people have performed. There are also good paid alternatives.

3) Website analysis. Look at the content of the webpage. There are also tools that can extract that data. The navigation and breadcrumbs can be helpful.

4) Competitors- Look at the content of the webpage of the competition.

5) Yahoo’s search home page- do a couple “bad” searches and Yahoo will show a list of related searches. Those are keywords.

6) Analytics-In your analytics. You are running analytics right? It will send you the keyword people are searching for when then used a search engine to get to your site.

7) Internal search-what are people searching for on your site? Those are keywords.

8 Competitive intelligence reports-Companies like Compete.com sell information on you and your company that may be useful.

9) The company-I listen to the language the stakeholders and employees use in our correspondence. Also, it never hurts to ask them if they thought I missed anything, but that is always at the end of the keyword expansion phase and campaign building phase.

Perhaps a new product might come in or a new corporate trend might develop that is outside the scope of analytics.

10) My experience-I have built umpteen campaigns and I have a certain feel for it.

(You may only recreate portions of this list if you keep the text and links unchanged and attribute the list to RoseOspreyMarketing.com.)

Smart move?

Yes.

Systemax also owns CompUSA.com and TigerDirect.com. It is currently number twenty one on the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide. Rankings are based on revenue generated from online channels in 2008.

Systemax competes with NewEgg.com (#9) and BestBuy (#10).

In 2007 CircuitCity.com generated 1.4 billion dollars of revenue putting it at # 16 on the Internet Retailer 500 list. It had been reported that the online channel had been profitable at the time that Circuit City filed for bankruptcy in January.

If Circuitcity.com, CompUSA.com, TigerDirect.com, BestBuy.com, and NewEgg retained their 2007 marketshare (2007 was the last full year of data I have), Systemax would have a bigger percentage of market then both NewEgg.com and BestBuy.

There have been fewer searches for “circuitcity.com” in the three months since Circuit City filed for bankruptcy.

I anticipate that this will be a good purchase for Systemax that will quickly pay for itself. The domain name, the brand, and the incoming links all have significant value.

Systemax has not announced how they are going to incorporate CircuitCity.com into their business plans. At the time of publication the site is down.

One of the primary factors in most first-tier search engines’ algorithm is external links. You want links from other sites. Preferably one-way links, but reciprocal links have value also.

There are many web-directories on the internet- both broad and specific. In fact, before Yahoo was a search engine, it was (and is) a web directory. A web directory works on a business model similar to the Yellow Pages. You submit information to the directory, the directory hosts ads, advertisers pay money to the webmasters.

Some more “enterprising” webmasters have come up with a different business model to support their web directory. Everyone values incoming links to their site because of the SEO value. What would you pay to get a link to your site from the Google homepage? Obviously Google does not sell links, but you can imagine the value to your company.

A small web directory can provide a similar value on a much smaller scale.

However, there is a problem.

This practice of buying links is against Google’s terms of service and can get your site removed from the SERPS altogether.

Of course, it is not against Google’s policy to buy advertising on a site as long as you state that you are an advertiser. You can also buy “memberships” in organizations and “receive” links.

The practice is not as black and white as it appears. However, if your business is flagged by Google, and removed from the search engines, the results will be very black and white. It is best to err on the side of caution with your business.

Here are some examples of legitimate directories I have worked with. I will try to add to the list as I find more:

Web Directory List:

seo resources

dmoz.org

Why?

We are offering to our customers a chance to get over that initial hurdle towards developing a successful internet marketing program. In the process, we gain exposure to the fine people who need our service.

When?

We anticipate running this promotion indefinitely, though it will depend upon the response.

How do I sign up?

Click for: free Google Analytics installation.

I have five goals I want to track. Will you configure them all for free?

No. We will configure one for free. Advanced configurations and connecting the account with Adwords may be purchased; or it can be done on your own.  (Please inform us if you have already purchased a PPC, SEO, or Analytics package as advanced configuration is included at no additional cost).

Do you install Omniture or Webtrends for free?

Not at this time.

 *Please do not use this service if you are getting paid by someone else to set up their account.*

For CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, this knowledge is probably all you need to converse with your search marketing department. Of course, it always helps to understand the “why”, and after reading this article you will be caught up.

Small business owners and SEOs must know more; but sometimes, in our chase to solve the mystery that is The Search Algorithm, we lose site of the fundamentals and goals. It is always good to be reminded what is important.

Concentrate on link building and adding text (or “content”) and you will improve the visibility and rankings of your site.

Why are links one of the two most important factors in SEO?
Links are an important part of SEO because of Google. Originally, Google’s Algorithm was based primarily on the following concept:
1) If site A has more inbound links than site B it must be “more popular”
2) If page B has more inbound links on it than page B it must be “more popular”

In Google’s collective mind, more links and more popularity equaled a more reputable page.

I am using the past-tense, because Google now uses links as only one of many factors that determines what site will show up number one in the search engine rankings. Supposedly there are over 200 variables used to in Google’s formula, though The Formula is a closely guarded secret.

Why is text one of the two most important factors in SEO?
Think about the act of “googling” or searching for something. You are typing words (text) into a form and telling a computer to “go find sites that have these words”. You are not drawing a picture, making a sound or downloading your memory (though that would be cool). Thus, a search cannot find pictures and sounds and videos unless they have corresponding text.

This is why your site with pictures (and only pictures) of cyclones is not ranked #1 for “cyclones”. The search engines just see that you have a picture file.* If you want your site to be search engine friendly, a good rule of thumb is to stick some text on your site.

*There are advanced techniques (beyond the scope of this article) that you can use to get around these problems. Speak to your SEO expert.