Improve your position in Google Maps

Google Places is the new primary goal for SEO experts. As your website can sit, in most cases, at the top of Google, with a map, it is the most likely place people will click on when searching for businesses in their area. Google relies on a large amount information from a few different places. However, they claim the information that you submit to Google is the information that they trust the most.

Anyone with a physical address can submit their business to Google Maps. However there are a few things they do to make sure the system is not being manipulated. To make sure the basic information you submit is accurate, Google will ask you to verify it first by entering a PIN that will be sent to either your business address or phone number.

There are a few things you can do to improve your chances of being listed high, or on the front page, of Google Maps. Before we get into the nitty gritty here are three quick things to remember about Google Places

1. There is a far higher value placed on information from authoritative listings, such as Yellow Pages, White Pages and other directories. The closer the information in Google Maps to your Yellow Pages listing, the better.
2. It relies on your physical location. There is more emphasis placed on the city/suburb of the search than the keywords
3. The more you try old SEO tricks to manipulate the results, the worse off you will be.
4. Google Places relies on proximity to the centre of the location to determine which results are called up. If your business address is in a large city, and you are far from the centre, you are going to struggle to improve your listing position.

The Easy Stuff

1. One listing per physical location. Even you cover multiple towns, don’t use two listings. Instead, use the description of your business or categories to explain the different services your business offers. Businesses with special services, such as law firms and doctors or health centres, should not create multiple listings to cover all of their specialties.
2. Use information as it would appear in the real world. People are going to be looking for you using your business card etc. You will also find your business listed by its real address in professional directories etc. You should try to be as official as possible.
3. Do NOT try to “SEO” your business name and business listing. Represent your business exactly as it appears in the offline world. Again, this comes back to directories and professional bodies, (authoritative listings), listing your business name. Do not include phone numbers or URLs in the business name.
4. Do not create listings at locations where the business does not physically exist. PO Boxes do not count as physical locations. The precise address for the business must be provided in place of broad city names or cross-streets.
5. Provide a phone number that connects to your individual business location as directly as possible. For example, you should provide an individual location phone number in place of a call center. Provide one URL that best identifies your individual business location. Do not provide phone numbers or URLs that redirect or ‘refer’ users to other landing pages or phone numbers other than those of the actual business.
6. Use the description and custom attribute fields to include additional information about your listing. This type of content should never appear in your business’s title, address or category fields.

The Harder Stuff

1. Pick your Battles. If you have the chance to list your business in a small local area, do it. Do not try to go up against larger competitors in bigger areas.
2. Try to get your address listed in as many places as possible. Add your physical location to every time you list in a local directory.
3. Local citations are king. You should try to get your business and address listed in as many local addresses as possible.
4. Good reviews through Google Places will improve your position. You should encourage your customers to write a review of you as much as possible.

On Another Note!

Just as a brag, we thought we would list some of or latest accomplishments;

Web Design Sydney
Mediterranean Dietary Supplement
Wholesale Handbags
Sydney Physiotherapists
Bondi Pilates
Baby Cubes
Born With Style
LSE Consulting
Web Design Sydney

eCommerce web design

There are many open source ecommerce systems available to web developers and designers. Some have great support, whilst others are meant to stand alone. As part of our launch of the new Baby and Home store, we decided to take a look at a group of ecommerce systems from the perspective of a small to medium sized store, with 20 products. Our store is looking to do some newsletters, small amounts of marketing and will need some SEO facilities. This case study store will have to stand on its own, without the need for tinkering, however the administrator will be capable of making small changes to the product catalogue.



osCommerce / Zen Cart

osCommerce and Zen Cart were one and the same thing. However recently Zen Cart split off and now does its own thing. Although the code is similar there are a few very important differences, namely that Zen Cart has its own template system built it, a feature frustatingly lacking from osCommerce. osCommerce is one of the older ecommerce systems available, and it is starting to show. The system is easy enough to install, and if you want to have just a very basic shop that processes payment via email or paypal, then this is probably ok. For the hardcore systems admin, this system will probably cover most bases, however it is seriously lacking in any niceties, which will put off all but those with the strongest stomach.

The nasty bits;

• The manual Credit Card payment is not PCI Compliant and should be used for testing only.


• Image thumbnails are in fact full size images reduced for display which impacts bandwidth.


• The main cause of stress, however, is that almost all of the add-ons and additions, which you will almost certainly need, have to be coded in manually.


• Be prepared to back up your website frequently because a large number of contributions come with little or no support and some are very old and no longer work.


• The back end is very clunky


• Although there is a simple template system, the front end is still hardwired to the system, so you are unable to easily move to a better looking design.


• Nested tables… virtually all the content exists in some form of a nested table… GAH!


• Almost all of the templates are outdated.

The good bits;

• There are MASSES of options to tweak, improve and add to your site


• The community support is good, if a little high level. Its fine if you understand php.


• There is support for MIGS, which is used by almost all of the banks here in Australia


• The basic additions are relatively easy to add on, if time consuming. Most of the seriously offputting issues are taken care of by contributions from the community


• Its very lightweight and fast. A full installation, with images, can compact down into less than 10MB


• If you are a tinkerer, then you can get in and work under the hood. There is no gloss to the code, so you can get your hands dirty if you want.


• It supports multiple languages and multiple currencies/prices and shipping options from the beginning.

Magento

If osCommerce is an old sea dog, then Magento is speed boat racer. It is slick, good looking and improving every day. It is very easy to install, but has only been around for a few years. The good side to that is it looks modern and has a lot of the functions we expect as standard. It claims to be the fastest growing eCommerce system available. The downside is that it is still working through some issues. When we looked into it again 6 months ago, there was a MIGs gateway, but it needed tweaking.

The pretty bits;

• Very slick inside and out


• Module installation is as automatic as you would want


• Comes with SEO optimisation and analytics out of the box


• iPhone support from the beginning


• A good range of addons and plugins

The grungier bits

• MIGS is unsupported at this stage, which can be a big drawback for Australian retailers


• The community is not as strong as other open source software, and being young there is not as many help files available

Wordpress and WP-eCommerce

Wordpress has started to become all things to all people, which is a good thing and a bad thing. The once humble blogging systems has been tweaking and hacked apart and now can pretty much be used as anything. The problems start when people try to turn it into something that it probably isnt.

As far as basic eCommerce goes, using the WP-eCommerce system is easy. Using Wordpress’ native coding and templating makes it by far the easiest option for someone to set up a small store. If you have a few products and are happy to sell through PayPal or through another payment gateway like that, then you are fine. However the system does not naturally support a lot of gateways and does not have support for multiple currencies. Also, as far as we know, it does not support membership and sign up, so you can’t tell if people are abandoning carts etc.

The sexy bits;

• Wordpress is pretty much magic. Modern, sleek, sexy


• SEO comes easily


• You can have a blog with a shop attatched, which is content gold!


• So easy to set up


• Support is generally good, from a lot of capable developers

The gruesome bits

• Its not really meant to be an all singing eCommerce system


• Some parts are actually open source and some aren’t


• Most of the “best” add ons you have to pay for


• CSS coding for the shopping cart is completely seperate from the blog itself.


• There is little or no support for multiple currencies, languages etc

There are more opensource shopping carts out there, and over time we will probably assess them too. For now, however, the three/four above are probably the best for most situations, and are well worth taking a look at.

Of course if you have your own experiences with eCommerce, you are welcome to share them here.

Our Triumphs

It has been a crazy year, with so many exciting projects going on, that sometimes it is easy to forget what you have done and how far you have come. So I thought I would launch the week with a small pat on the back for ourselves for some of the major events that have taken place, we have launched and that have rocked our world over the last two or three months.

Baby and Home

We have now launched and gone into SEO mode on the new Baby and Home website. Baby and Home offers some excellent, exclusive, products, for delivery across Australia within ten days. They already stock products like babycubes, Brother Max Bibs and a whole range of other great products. Over the next few months we will be working on building the website profile, ironing out the bugs, and helping add another 40 to 50 products to the website.

DMOZ

We got our first listing in DMOZ!

Product Packaging for Target

We finished our latest round of product packaging for a new product going into Target in the next few months. We actually can’t show you examples here, because it is all still top secret. However, once we are up and running with it, I am sure we will be able to tell you all about it!

We are STILL Hiring

As always we are on the look out for the most creative, most talented graphic designers. In the last 4 months we have taken on another 4 consultants in the areas of SEO and product design. Together, they bring around 80 years of marketing and design experience with them. He hope to expand our range of services offered to our clients, so that we can continue to grow your businesses in ways you probably never dreamed.

Comodo Partner

As part of our ongoing quest to offer the full business service, from conception to initiation, we have partnered with Comodo to offer SSL and ecommerce security products. This now allows us to streamline the build process of your ecommerce store. It also allows us to comfortably advise clients on the right levels of security for their business.

SEO Services

Our continued expansion of SEO services has meant that we now offer the full range of opportunites to best position our clients websites. We have access to our own exclusive Australian directory as well as our own range of SEO products such as directory and article search. We now have over 30 Australian companies relying on us to raise their rankings in search engines.

Ecommerce Website

We have just finished a new Mediterranean Diet Supplement website 24hours for Phytologic that encorporates ecommerce and some basic SEO techniques. It was a fast turnaround for us, but we managed it. The new website is part of their new Mediterranean Diet pills.

SEO and Directories

Are web directories worth the effort anymore? Can web directories improve your SEO position? Web Directories can take up more time than they are worth. Especially when they need reciprocal links to be created, and sometimes you have to fish around to find the right category. Some people resort to grabbing as many links as they can, just to improve their SEO position, which also can mean the quality of the directory goes down.

However there are some good reasons why some web directories can be VERY useful to you and your business’ SEO, and almost all directories actually serve some kind of a purpose. Because the best directories are checked by humans for relevancy and informational “worth” of a site before adding it to the directory, search engines often rely on this process being carried out for them. Some web directories, like DMOZ, have a very strict inclusion policy, making the job of the search engines that much easier.

What General Directories Provide Great Value?

There are some great general directories that do provide value, like DMOZ and Yahoo, however these are few and far between. Generally you are better submitting to two classes of directory, local and topical. However some general directories rank well for obscure keywords because a) they have a lot of links/SERPs for that category and b) that category has low competition. In order to find which general directories provide the best value you can use a Directory search engine.

Topically Relevant Directories:
The best way to find topically relevant directories, is search for “Your Keyword, Directory” and “Find a *Keyword*. There are so many great directories out there that are specialised for your industry. The one that we are listed in, which gives us a lot of traffic, is Xemion.

There are plenty of topically relevant directories, as well as directories that rank well for obscure keywords. Here is a list of keywords that one directory ranks well for;
Sydney Dog Grooming
Melbourne Day Care
Sydney Accountants
Brisbane Hairdresser
Perth Locksmiths
Melbourne Cafes
Sydney Plumbers

Sydney Mobile Vet

Think Local:
Some local directories are way under priced and of high quality. Quality local directories tend to drive significant hyper targeted traffic. In Australia Hot Frog is a free web directory that basically allows you to build your own web page, but with all the benefits of being a local website.

Use Roboform to submit your sites, but mix up the link anchor text and descriptions. This is because a)Google hates SPAM submissions, and b) Unique original content is more likely to be retained in the search engines.

When submitting your websites to directories, you should also, always try to include your physical address and telephone number. If you are feeling adventurous, you should also include your best offer for a product. This will increase your SEO ranking in Google Places as well.

You can use the lower value web directories to improve your SERPs by encorporating them into the outer rings of your link wheel. Some web directories allow deep links, and links to pages on things like VOX and Blogger. You can use them to build up the profile of your outer rim, increasing the amount of link juice that flows down into your main websites. You should use Directory Critic to find the directories that have good PR and also allow deep links.

Lastly, a good method of finding which web directories pass the most link juice is to use Open Site explorer on your competitors. Open Site explorer is great because it not only takes into account the domain authority but also the page Authority.

Ultimate Guide to Increasing web conversions

Turning your website from a drab static website into an exciting lead producing machine can take time and money. Here we have a long list of lessons we have learned over the years to produce the best web design that converts readers into customers. First though, here are some quick tips;

• Optimising your website for conversion is an ongoing long term initiative, a few quick points from this page will not make your website the best it can be.
• Focus first on the offer, then the layout.
• Dramatic changes can yield dramatic results. - we once turned a 40% bounce rate website into a 5% by scrapping the theme and starting again.

Excellent Design. In the end, your website is the most important piece of marketing you can own, and it must look good. The best web design obeys the rules of aesthetics and landing page design, this means premium real estate for the logo and the offer, concise use of page layout, customisable widget areas.

First aim to build trust

Use safe shopping logos.

Customisable. You should be able to make many changes to a template without spending too much time sweating over the code. You should also be able to do most of that through a CMS system or something similar. The easiest CMS Systems are Joomla and Wordpress.

SEO friendly. Your website should at least be optimised for seo, that meant no flash, good used of H1 tags, css menus, title tags, meta descriptions and a HTML and XML sitemap.

Title and description Tags. These are the main tags that Google will use for your listing. Including the main city and your telephone number will increase conversions. Also making sure that the right products and services are included in your description will make sure you are attracting clicks from the right customers.

Accessibility. The best web designs work with all modern browsers and have W3C valid code. Up to 30% of

Reduce form fields required

Remove distracting banner images

Strengthen the visibility of the headlines.

The offer should be easy to see and understand. A large dark headline with light background behind a features area will attract attention to the offer. The best web designs have all other elements balanced, so they don’t overwhelm. You should use short, direct, language that speaks to the user.

A clear primary call to action. Don’t just state “click here”. You should have action verbs that relate to the offer, like “Buy Now” or “Find Me”

Repeat the call to action. Drive customers to interact with you.

Use contrast. The more contrast you have, the easier the website is to read.

Keep the pages short and to the point. Whilst it is “en-vogue” to have a long page jammed with SEO Keywords, the best performing web designs have less content, more focussed offers and several calls to action.

Content on the left, call to action on the right.

You need a two column layout, with the sales proposition to be the first thing that the user sees. Their eye will naturally track to the right, where you put your call to action button. When they use Google to search for your product you want them to see the offer first.

White background.

All research in readability points to having a white background as THE best way to endure copy is readable. To put this another way you should have black text on a white background. If the background is not white, it makes it difficult to use any other colours in your body.

Stretchable side areas (outside of the body)

Either you need to build your website at 1000px across with stretchable side areas, or have no side areas at all.

Reduced Javascript and CSS fed from the bottom

Cut down on javascript and CSS, have them in one file each and load them from the bottom. This will speed up the web page load time.

Test everything

Welcome to Sydney Marketing Agency

We are a Marketing Agency based in Sydney. We create web design and marketing campaigns that sell! This will be our blog, and we hope you enjoy it!