We know there’s a lot of great paid services that can help grow your business quickly like Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimisation and Social Media Marketing, but what can a small business do to help themselves grow online when things are a little tight? Here’s a list of 11 services that can give your business the push it needs to grow online:

1. Signup to FREE a Facebook business page and fill in all your business details including website, telephone and opening hours
2. Signup to a FREE Twitter page for your business
3. Signup to your LinkedIn Business Page
4. Signup to a FREE Pinterest for your business and start sharing photos that are connected with your business
5. Send out FREE Press Releases about your business, your growth, exciting news
6. Sign up for your FREE Google+Local (previously Google Places)
7. Clean up your data online, Google your business name and make sure that all directories have the correct telephone numbers, address and if you have a website that its added to the directories. Here’s a few directories worth check: Yellow Pages, True Local and HotFrog.
8. Set up your FREE Webmaster Central Account at Google.
9. Set up your FREE Bing Webmaster Tools account.
10. Set up your FREE Google Analytics account so you can track when, where and how visitors are coming to your website

The next installment of this blog we will show you how you can easily manage just about all your social media services from one area without the need of signing into each service. We hope the links and services get you started and as always if you get stuck or need help with setting up any of these services get in contact with one of our specialists on 1300 448 305 or contact us here.

Publicity Monster is excited to share that we now have over 4500 optimisation success stories, with small businesses thriving on our cost effective optimisation services. We will be in contact with all our customers over the coming months to share more success stories of how our customers excel with our various services like Google+ Local Optimisation (previously Google Places), Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). We have recently welcomed hundreds of new customers including Radio Rentals, LJ Hooker, UltraTune and many more. Check out some of our other clients here So why are these customers moving across to Publicity Monster?

1. Our optimisation technology and experience is second to none
2. We are the largest Google+ Local Optimiser in Australia
3. We keep up to date with Google’s regular changes and help our customers bring their business inline with guidelines
4. Proof is in our results
5. Our prices start from under $8 a week (cheaper than doing it yourself)

Our positive reviews keep coming in, here’s one from a Counselor in Brisbane: “You have helped increase my customer numbers please continue to do what you are doing. i will sign up for the next 12 months. keep up the great work and thanks.” Read more Publicity Monster reviews here and here So don’t sit back any longer, speak to one of our specialists and find out how we can get your real results quickly. CONTACT US HERE  

Big changes for Google Places this week with the integration into Google’s social media platform Google+ to create the all new Google+ Local. We find it be a lot similar to how you can check into a business via Places on Facebook, leave comments, share with friends but you can now do this by logging into your Gmail account and using Google+. This is obviously a big push from Google to get more people to use their platform and get businesses more involved with Google+, we also understand by Google making this integration, Google Places will see a lot more features introduced in the near future. We really like the new layout, it’s simple and gives you all the information you need at a glance. We also like that there’s a lot more information about the users who’s leaving the feedback and this gives you a clearer indication of where else this person has visited and what else they’ve commented on. Google+ Local drops the old star rating system for the Zagat review system , better known in the US for decades for their restaurant reviews. The rating system is now based on a 0 to 3 point scale. (see image)

• 3 = Excellent
• 2 = Very Good
• 1 = Good
• 0 Poor to Fair

These scores are then averaged by Google and the business is given a total score:

• 26-30 Extraordinary to perfection
• 21-25 Very good to excellent
• 16-20 Good to very good
• 10-15 Fair to good
• 0-9 Poor to fair

Main Changes:

• No more stars, a score out of 3
• Businesses get a total score that is average by Google
• Clearer and more substantiated reviews from friends and visitors
• More features coming

  To find out more about Google Places, Google+ Local speak to one of our specialists click here

Over the last couple years we have had the opportunity to speak to thousands of Australian businesses in just about every line of work you can imagine from solicitors to tradespeople and we found many suffer from the same problem, lead blockage. We found that sometimes businesses can be their own worst enemy, making it too hard for potential customers to do business with them that they end up going elsewhere. After a careful analysis of their business we found the following to be the top 5 issues causing the lead blockage, many fixable within 10 minutes. What are they you ask?

Problem 1: Web Design or Website

Some websites are so complicated, loaded with so much content that they disable visitors from doing what they really need to do, so what are the top priorities when potential or return customers visit your website?

1. Get a quick idea of what you do and what your work is like
2. Get in contact with you
3. Purchase something from your site

Does you website do all the above simply and easily? If not you need to make changes to your website to accommodate anyone and everyone being able to visit your website

Problem 2: No Telephone Number

So many websites have no telephone number or the telephone number is so small and insignificant it might as well not be there. The perfect test is to get one of your friends to visit your website using their home computer or even their smart phone and if they can’t find your number within 5 seconds of your website loading, you need to fix it ASAP. Here’s a few tips:

1. Highlight your telephone number
2. Make your phone number click-able, so when someone visits your site using their iPhone or any other internet enabled telephone they can call you simply by clicking on your number
3. Make it stand out, highlight your number, make it larger, make it bold, move it to the top of the page and make sure you can’t miss it.
4. Put your telephone number on every page

Problem 3: No contact choices

Read the rest of this entry »

We thought we would go straight to the point, here’s a new little video about where you should be investing your marketing dollars.

Optimise Your Business In Google Local (Places) for under $6 It’s no secret that the old ways of advertising like local newspapers and directory books are dying a slow death becoming less effective for small business, especially when 82% of all local business searches are done in Google. We have been able to see the success of many of our customers who have seen real results and real business coming through the door within their first 4 weeks! So is online marketing the answer? Yes, but not all online marketing is the same. There’s 2 forms of online marketing:

1. Advertising that helps grow traffic to your website
2. Advertising that get’s your phone ringing

Let’s talk about no.1, this form of advertising is great if you have a website and the website is designed to turn traffic into calls or sales online and this is what we call a high converting website. Unfortunately, most websites are a tangled web and are either too simple with no information, no direction or too complex causing potential customers to leave before taking any action. The No.2 type of advertising is powerful yet hard to find, advertising that simply gets you the right kind of customers picking up their phones and calling you. This is where Google Local also known as Google Places comes in, the service is dedicated to helping you convert business interest in your local area into real business dollars. How does it do this? Let’s me you an example, Mr & Mr. Smith are watching a home renovation show on the weekend and decide that it’s time to give their house a fresh coat of paint, they jump online and search Google or they can’t be bothered getting up at all and do a quick search on their iPhone using Google to search for a “Painter” in “their local area” Google pops up a map (as seen below) and next to the map are the top 7 painters in that local area. The easy part is that next to each of the painters is their business name, website and their contact number and you’re one click away from calling the painter and getting a quick quote. Easy! So how do you get your business in the TOP 7 in Google Places?

This is a great opportunity for any business looking to grow online using the world’s largest search engine “Google” and join our successful customers who have been able to turn Google traffic into profits for their businesses. Want more information? click here for our contact details Timmy Sabre

Get your business listed and optimised for the top of Google Local (Places) Australia today for as little as only $6 a week.

Why optimise your business in now?

1. There’s only Top 7 spots available in each suburb
2. Unlimited leads (you don’t pay per click or per lead)
3. 82% of all Australians go online to find their local business
4. 92% of all Australian’s online use Google
5. 12 times more people use Google than Yellow Pages Books
6. 18 times more people use Google than local newspapers
7. Due to high use of iPhone & smart phones – Google Places is the first choice in search
8. Be found easily by existing customers looking for your number
9. Get called by new opportunities in your local area
10. Jump ahead of your competition
11. Google Places mini-site featuring photos, testimonials, opening times, details about your business
12. Get quality targeted website traffic
13. Detailed statistics showing you who is searching for you, where they came from and what they’re looking for
14. 12 months support & assistance with your listing optimisation
15. Thousands of satisfied customers, see testimonials

Ask us how we can help optimise your business to appear in the top search results in your local area. We specialise in listing your local business in Google Places and Google Places Optimisation to help your business grow online Contact us

Google Local (Places) is for you! Watch the 2 minute video below.

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