BTG Solutions

Quantcast is an American technology company, founded in 2006, that specializes in AI-driven real-time advertising, audience insights & measurement. The company claims that it has accurate audience measurement to over 100 million web destinations. It has offices in the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, United Kingdom, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden. (wikipedia)

There are hyper local directories, as found at www.myweeklysentinel.com’s Business and Classified section and the chamber websites found in the communities in which we live.

In contrast, there are directories such as Google and Bing, the search engine giants that help us find “Italian restaurants near me” and “Lennox furnace service” and “post office”. These are free listing opportunities for your business. “We see clients getting about 10% of their organic (free) website traffic and 15% of their paid search traffic through Bing,” said Phillip Barnhart, director of client marketing services for Nehmedia in Austin, TX. “The organic traffic is anchored by the Bing Places entry.”

In this article I am going to walk you through the registration process for Bing Places, which will put you on the Bing map and in their directory listing.

1.     Open your internet browser and go to www.bingplaces.com. If you have a Microsoft account, use it to sign in. If you don’t have a Microsoft account, sign up for one. You’ll need it to use Bing Places for Business. Once you have logged in, click the “Get Started” button.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization 

"Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's unpaid results—often referred to as "natural," "organic," or "earned" results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine's users." from Wikipedia​

Optimization is what technology is all about. So how will a company optimize their online ranking with Google, Bing and Yahoo if they don't know where to start? Often this is left to a third party consulting company as it is a challenging endeavor even for the experienced. To fully appreciate the challenge, read further to learn about the many facets of SEO.

The Short List of SEO Optimizations for Small Businesses

1. Good website design (mobile-friendly and tablet-friendly) and good content.
2. Use Google Analytics and Bing Webmaster to verify and present content to these search engines.
3. Implement social media effectively. Multiple social media channels should be used to assure more eyes see your content and more search power is devoted to your content.
4. Get on the maps - Google and Bing!
5. Subscribe to the free directories of Manta, Yelp, BBB, and all others offered. This provides backlinks to your website and social channels and provides a new audience.

It's hard to stay abreast of the many features of social media. Today I was on my Facebook business page to adjust the settings for the featured YouTube video my audience sees when they click on my YouTube video tab. I ran across PAGE VERIFICATION in the GENERAL section of the SETTINGS options. The note reads "Verified Pages show up higher in search results." 

I immediately clicked on the VERIFY PAGE link and was given the option to provide my business phone number or a business document from a utility company, bank or the like. They confirmed they would not share my business phone number with other, so I provided my business phone number. Facebook called me right away and provided a four digit authorization number for me to key in. Boom! My business page is now verified and will "show up higher in search results".

Today I went to a very informative small business seminar, hosted by the Novi Chamber of Commerce and the Novi Library. The seminar was focused on Google Maps for the purpose of building a virtual network of local businesses. This is not a new concept and I have been speaking of this with my small business clients for at least 3 years. 

Before I go on I want to tip my hat to Doug Willett, LunaTech3D, a Google affiliate who provides the LOOK INSIDE videos for businesses, non-profit organizations, and downtown development groups. Doug provided great insights into the why and how of Google ranking and Google+ pages and Google maps.