Today our All About Google Webinar series continues on the topic of Keyword Research.

Here are the Powerpoint slides to go along with the Webinar.

All attendees will receive access to a recorded version of the Webinar in the next few days.

We just wrapped up the second webinar in our Summer All About Google Series.  During this webinar we discussed how Google Local (Maps) Works and the factors that help you rank better and the factors that negatively affect your rankings.

A recorded version will be sent to all attendees.

Here is a powerpoint presentation from the Webinar:

The link I recommended for people to learn more is Local Search Ranking Factors by David Mihm. It is an excellent and informative article on what works in Local search. It also has links to other articles that are quite informative — use the article as a jumping off point to learn all you really need to know about Local Search

Our last couple of articles has been about how Google is offering its searchers more power to revise and personalize their search results.

What is going on here and what does this mean in terms of online strategy?

Google has made it easier for the consumers to slice and dice their search results.  Clearly this feature makes it easier for the average searcher to create more powerful searches. For the business owner, this is one more step in a Google trend: the overall power of a traditional top 10 organic listing continues to be diluted.

1. First the top 10 organic was diluted by PPC, which put 3 results above it.
2. Second, it was diluted by Google Maps 10-box which puts 10 results above it in “local” searches.
3. Then it was diluted by Google’s “Universal Search” which began inserting videos, news and images into the top ten.  Although, this seems to be happening less often now.
4. Concurrently it began being diluted by “personalized” search which gives users the power to change their search and gives customized results to some users.
5. Meanwhile, Google’s International search engines and Mobile search are also on the rise
6. Now, it is being diluted by letting users more easily change their results based upon time-frame, alternative recommended keyword phrases, and specialty (reviews, videos, forum) searches.

Who is going to benefit by this? The search consumer.

Another beneficiary is the website marketer who has revised their search strategy to focuses on local search, videos, reviews, press releases and all the other activities that create a broad footprint of content for Google to use to dilute their organic listings.  Give Google what it wants!

Back in 1999 we segmented SEO priorities into search engines:

• Yahoo
• AltaVista
• Excite
• Google
• MSN
• Lycos
• Ask Jeeves
• Goto

Now, in 2009 we divide up search into content segments: (more…)

Google’s SearchWiki has been integrated into Google’s search results for 8 months now, but many searches still haven’t really noticed it or used it.  When you do a search, you will see Search wiki next to every result:

By clicking on the up arrow, you move that search result to the top of YOUR searches. The X button removes the results completely.   The little comment bubble below the search lets you add your own personal comments to any search. These comments will show up in your future searches. Google SearchWiki lets you personalize your own Google search results.  Here is what it looks like the next time you search:

(more…)

Check out Blizzard Internet Marketing out on the web.  The following channels offer you ways to see what we are up to and to communicate with us directly:

We have been updating our Blizzard Internet Facebook page. Mostly with stuff going on around the office, especially the people at blizzard.  Facebook is where we want to post more casually about what we are up to.

You can find Blizzard on twitter at #blizzInternet.  We have a few folks here at Blizzard twittering and haven’t really been making the most of our corporate twitter

Blizzard is a Linkedin fan… it is the best professional networking site and useful tool for stayingin touch with professional contacts.

We use flickr for screenshots of our customers and a way to share images we use. We also upload some company pics there.

Communitywalk is a map to our office.  In July we are moving offices to our new building!

Curiously, except for Twitter, all of these show up in the top 20 when you search for “Blizzard Internet” in Google.  Setting up accounts in places like these have many benefits (and costs in human resources)… and certainly one benefit is a deeper presence in searches, especially for your business name.

Learn All About Google on May 12th in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. All About Google is a full-day workshop designed for the lodging and hospitality industry.Trent Blizzard, President of Blizzard Internet Marketing, is teaching the All About Google seminar, one in a series of seminars hosted in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Attendees can signup online.

This seminar series is targeted towards the hospitality businesses who are increasingly trying to develop online marketing expertise in-house. The current economic conditions combined with the high ROI available from online marketing is driving the change towards a dedicated on-staff web marketer. Concurrent with this trend is the need for targeted and affordable training classes within the entire realm of online marketing.

Attendees will learn:

Industry research about search engines

How Google works

Tools for keyword research

How to optimize their website

How to build powerful referral links

Tools for tracking results

Tools for spying on your competitors

Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc. is a leading provider of Internet marketing services to the hospitality industry. Trent Blizzard is an experienced and popular workshop leader on topics such as Google, SEO, Analytics, Blogging, and Web 2.0.

When you claim your business at the Google Local Business Center, Google offers you two choices of validation… both a bit hairy:

1. A phone call. Generally the phone call is IMMEDIATE and directly to the number indicated.  Many businesses don’t capture that automated phonecall.  Perhaps there is a voicemail system that the automated message cannot navigate?  Perhaps your receptionist answers the phonecall and isn’t prepared? If you use this message, make sure that a human answers the phone when it rings and follows the directions..
2. A postcard.  3-6 weeks after you make a change, you get a postcard in the mail.  It looks like junk mail and gets thrown away.  Make sure whomever checks your mails watches out for this postcard.

Either way for many businesses, the opportunity is lost… your Google Business Center listing goes un-updated.  I recently got a copy of one of their postcards and wanted to use this opportunity to show what it looks like, so, when you use option #2 above, you know what to expect in the mail.

Here is what that postcard looks like:

Google Local Postcard

Postcard from Google Local Business Center