This represents a significant growth in local searches overall, as in 2011 there were 54.9 billion desktop searches and 19.7 billion mobile searches. This increase in local mobile searches represents a nearly 500% growth over the 6 year period from 2011 to 2016. Comparatively local desktop searches are expected to grow by approximately 55% over the same period. This sharp increase in local mobile searches is attributed to the continued growth of the smart phone market as well as consumers increasing confidence in searching for information while on the go.

Is your local store marketing keeping up with the pace of consumer preferences? Qiigo Mobile can help you reach consumers where they want to be reached…on the go…on their smartphones. Call Qiigo today to learn more about Qiigo Mobile and all of our online advertising products. Call (404) 496-6841.

Building a strong and thriving Google+ community is a great way to engage your customers, build brand awareness, and develop a loyal following among your shoppers, vendors, and clients. If you are just getting started or even if you already have a Google+ page, you can use these simple tips to ensure that you are growing your Google+ audience.

• Build A Compelling Page. Ensure your Google+ page is compelling. Chose a profile photo that clearly speaks to your store, business or location. Make it easily recognizable and dynamic. Add scrapbook pages that share information about your business, thoroughly complete the ‘About’ section, and don’t forget to add links to other locations across the web where you can be found.
• Messaging Matters. Think about the tone of the messages you plan to disseminate via your Google+ pages and keep your tone consistent across time. Your messages should be personal and authentic, you want people to engage with you and feel a connection to your business. Consider linking your personal Google+ page to the ‘About’ section of your company page. This will help people to get a feel for who is contributing and will help to establish that elusive connection with your business.



• Segment with Circles. Google+ Circles can help you to segment your messaging allowing you to tailor specific messages to customers, vendors, staff, VIPs, and more.
• Frequency Matters. Don’t set up your account and then bail on it. Create a schedule and stick to it. Frequency of posting matters and your customers expect to hear from you with new and interesting information on a regular basis. Some recommend a daily posting schedule. Most posting is completed between 10am and 1pm.
• Don’t Forget the Photos and Video. Photos and video are a great way to liven up your posting schedule. Having a sale? Post a coupon exclusive to your Google+ members. You can even edit your photos in Google+ so it’s easy to keep your posts vibrant and dynamic.
• Keep Them Engaged. Use the +mention feature. Ask questions. Seek feedback. Respond to comments. Be an active member of your own community and your Google+ community will stay engaged with you.



• Host a Hangout. Hangouts allow you to have face-to-face conversations with your fans and followers around the world. Host a hangout and enjoy the benefits of interacting with your Google+ community.
• Get Your Badge. Your Google+ Badge that is. Installing a Google+ Badge on your website allows people to +1 and add you to their circles directly from your site. It also connects +1’s from your homepage with +1’s on your Google+ page and ads, increasing the number of recommendations for your site.
• Spread the Word. Share your page with people you know by posting a link to your Google+ page on your email signature, blog, website, and other social destinations.
• Take A Little Credit. Tag your online materials with an author tag so people will know what content was created by you.

Use these tips and you will be well on your way to creating a dynamic Google+ page. For more information on Google+ pages and other social media endeavors, contact Qiigo today.

The International Franchise Association Convention is your chance to “Seize the Opportunity”! As the leaders in the franchise community gather in Orlando, Florida for the 52nd Annual Convention, we invite you to join the Qiigo team as they lead two Business Solution Roundtables in the Marketing and PR Track.
Join Qiigo CEO Rick Batchelor as he leads the Local PPC for the Franchisee Made Easy roundtable with Charlie Ellis from MDG Advertising. This roundtable will cover:

• What does it take to launch a locally targeted Google Adwords campaign?
• What is bid management and how can it be used to curb costs while increasing visibility?
• How do you pick keywords that will deliver qualified prospects to your franchise’s website?
• What are three simple steps you can use to track PPC conversions?
• How much should you be spending on your local PPC campaign?

Interested in Mobile Marketing? Then you should join Zach Dickens, Qiigo Senior Account Executive, for the Your Customers Have Gone Mobile: Now What? roundtable with Bill Adams of Matchbin. This discussion will cover:

• What mobile marketing efforts are critical to success?
• Are they best for branding or driving transactions?
• How can I make my web site mobile-ready?
• Can I track the effectiveness of mobile marketing?
• How does it fit into my overall marketing strategy?

The Business Solutions Roundtables will be held on Tuesday, February 14 from 10:15 am to 12:30 pm.
We look forward to seeing you at one of these Roundtable sessions. To meet with Rick or Zach prior to the Roundtable sessions, please stop by the Qiigo booth, #214.

Let’s start with a quick refresher course on claiming your Google Places page. If you haven’t already done this, here is what you need to do.

• Go to http://www.google.com/ and find your business, if you get to the places page and see this message, you know you still have to claim your page.

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• Once you have gone through the steps to claim your listing, you will be able to add any basic information that is missing, including hours of operation, address and phone numbers. List your name, address and exact phone numbers as Google doesn’t take kindly to geographic or keyword stuffing. If you have a toll free number, you can add more than one phone number, but list your local phone number first as this will help to localize your listing.
• You next step will be to choose your keywords, categories and description information. You can choose up to 5 categories to describe your business, if possible use all five, but choose only those that accurately describe your business and avoid location words as Google doesn’t like them here. Your description, on the other hand, can and should include geographic or location keywords, while still being easy to read.
• After this step is completed, it is time to add photos and video to your profile. Add at least one photo, even if it is only a logo or photo of the outside of your location. Also consider adding geotagged images to Google Picasa or Flickr. By adding geotagged images to these sites and linking them back to your Places page, you are providing Google with additional geographic data. You can also add up to five YouTube video URLs and since YouTube is now a Google company, it certainly won’t hurt to do so. Video is an engaging medium and adds a compelling image to consumers who visit your Places page.
• Ratings and reviews are important to your rankings, so ask frequent customers to rate you online. It’s not advised to post your own reviews, but if you can get a few positive reviews online it will certainly help the cause.

All of these factors go into helping improve your ranking because Google takes several things into account when providing search results.  The three primary factors are:

• Relevance – Google only shows you those listings that are relevant to your search. For example, if you search for sporting goods stores, they won’t show you listings for car dealerships and fast food chains.
• Prominence – Prominence is determined by how well known those stores are based on sources across the web.
• Distance – Distance is calculated based on how far the stores are from the locatiaon you typed in your search or from your general location.

Now that you have claimed and optimized your Google Places page, let’s take a look at what’s going on with the newest additions to the Google arsenal…Tags, Boost and HotPot.

Google Tags help your organic listings to stand out on a Google results page or a Google Maps search results page.  Google Tags are the bright yellow marker that highlight when business have videos, photos or special offers on their page. They look like this.

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Google Boost is an online advertising solution that enables you to create an online search ad from your Google Places account.  A Google Boost ad appears in the Pay Per Click listing area with a special blue marker and looks like this.

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Google Tags is a flat rate, online advertising product.  While Google Boost is a per click advertising product. Neither affect the ranking of your business on Google or Google Maps.

Google HotPot on the other hand can affect the ranking of your business’ local search result.  It is Google’s new local recommendation engine that allows users to rate and review stores, restaurants, and businesses, and then share these reviews with friends.  When logged in, Google HotPot will also send you personalized recommendations based on the ratings you and your friends provide with the goal of providing you with exposure to new places you might otherwise not have visited.

As Google continues to evolve and add new products to its local search toolkit, it is vital that you have a firm foundation to stand on. Now is the time to ensure that your Google Places listing is claimed and that all information is correct. Firm up your Google Places listing now and start exploring the options available with Google Tags, Boost and HotPot.  Then see what happens to your local search rankings!

Brick and mortar stores can benefit greatly from local search sites.  While you do not necessarily have to have a physical store, some local search sites do require it.  With fewer and fewer people turning to phone books or 411 for information, the popularity of local search sites has grown.  Don’t let your business miss out on the benefits of local search sites.

Many local search sites offer their services free to businesses.  It is a mutually beneficial relationship. As more local businesses list their contact information on a local search site, the more the site gains credibility and traffic, resulting in more leads for the local business.  It is a win-win situation.  So how do you decide if a local search site is worth your time and energy?

First and foremost, you want sites that are active in your business area.  Secondly, you want to be sure that they have a category established for your business.  If the search engine you are investigating is focused on only one industry, it may not be valuable to you.  As with any advertising venture, price is an issue. While most local search engines are free, some do charge.  A free listing site is rarely a bad idea.  If the search engine is requesting a fee, do your due diligence and investigate it thoroughly.

Traffic and SEO are two other important factors to consider.  Spend the time to get the Alexa rating for the search engine in question.  It will help you to get a feel for how busy the site is.  Obviously the busier the better and the closer their ranking will be to 1.  Checking the Google Page Rank for the site’s home page will help you to gauge the SEO benefits.  You are looking for a ranking between 5 and 10; this will show you that they have some authority.  Don’t forget to check the ranking for the page your listing will reside on.  In order for the site to lend value to your SEO efforts, Google must be able to see the link.

Local search is a valuable tool for many businesses.  Getting your company added exposure on a local search site is a great way to drive traffic to your site and your business.

To get the best results from local SEO searches, a few simple steps can make a world of difference.  Follow these quick tips and you should see improved results in your local SEO searches.

First, spend some time researching the local link groups of the sites you are in competition with.  Finding out which local link groups the competition is using will give you an idea of what you are up against.  If you can get your web site attached to these same local link groups, you will make huge strides in catching up to the competition.  While you are working on this part of the project, you could make Hubpages or Squidoo pages to enhance your results.  The objective here is to simply group together sites that are normally together and add your website into the mix.

Another way to improve your local SEO search results is to focus on address citations.  For this step you want work on getting your business name, business address, business phone and business website with as many references as possible.  If you have access to HTML code, it is helpful to bracket your business address like this:

• [address]
• [/address]

Remember that each time your website gets a citation on another reputable website, search engines look at this in a positive light.  The more citations you get in your geo-location, the better your SEO ranking.

Finally, combining the authority and anchor text will help to give you a final boost in rankings.  Both anchor text and site authority are valuable factors in raising your ranking.  By combining the individual strengths of anchor text and site authority, you will be more likely to win the ranking in a close race.

1. Use social media. Social media sites such as FaceBook and MySpace are not just for the kids. You can create as many pages as you want that are SEO friendly and watch links build.

2. Use forums. Posting search engine optimized content in forums can end up drawing people to your website, especially if you learn how to use HTML.

3. Use RSS feeds on social media pages. This will allow your sites to be updated continuously.

4. If you have multiple sites, link your sites to each other.

5. Use social bookmarking pages.

6. Learn to use Meta Tags on your posts.

7. Take advantage of free press release distribution with SEO content.

8. Write reviews about your website on forums, blogs and especially on your site!

9. Encourage others to visit your site and spread links around.

10. Use a link exchange site.

11. Write articles for Ezine and have them posted containing SEO rich material.

12. Submit links to all search engines.

13. Distribute free articles on sites that will allow SEO content.

14. Use hyper links to your articles in your various websites.

15. Get a sub domain site in addition to your website and build on that.

16. Link all articles as an RSS feed on your website.

17. Write a blog at a free blogging site that contains SEO material.

18. Use a good Meta description for your articles that contains your keywords.

19. Blog on your social media sites.

20. Learn how to use SEO resources.

21. Use Video for your site.

22. Post videos used on your site to other video sharing sites.

23. Learn how to understand and use web analytics to improve your content.

24. Use question sites as a way to post about your site and for link building.

25. Use question sites to answer questions posting a link to your site.

26. Encourage comments about articles as these will also help build links. Even if you have to comment on your own article, this will help with link building.

27. Add content to all sites periodically to keep building links.

28. Join groups where you can post in forums.