Here’s a few scenarios where I recommend you not spend your local online marketing dollars for Google Tags:

1. Your business is not already showing up in the local business results
   To get the most bang-for-your-buck you need to already be showing up in the local search results for your chosen keyword(s). Otherwise, you are wasting your money. Google doesn’t show any favoritism just because you are spending $25.00 / per month for Google Tags. Remember, the only place your Google Tag will show up is in the local business results. If your business doesn’t show up, your tag doesn’t show up.
2. The local business listings are saturated with Google Tags
   As more local businesses adopt Google Tags, you will see most listings with the little yellow Google tags. At that point, the highlight effect of the tag is negated. I did a few quick locale + plumber keyword checks in other locations to see if this was the case and I couldn’t find where this has occurred yet. The keywords I searched were:

   • Los Angeles Plumber
   • Manhattan Plumber
   • San Francisco Plumber

Post from: PinPoint Vision Chris Lagarde, the owner of PinPoint Vision, has been helping brick-and-mortar businesses reduce ad costs and increase their profits since 1998.Chris helps local business owners successfully market to their local clientele with inexpensive online marketing techniques. Free tools and reports for local business owners in Austin, TX can be found here PinPoint Vision

Google Tags for Local Online Marketing

A first step that anyone can do to dramatically increase the exposure of their business website is to take the time to list it in various directories.

Below is a comprehensive list of directories. Showing up in web searches means your website must first be found!

Make it easy for the search engines to find you by listing your business information.

***Psssttt - Nearly ALL are free to list your business!***

Thanks to:
Emarketing Matador

Post from: PinPoint Vision Chris Lagarde, the owner of PinPoint Vision, has been helping brick-and-mortar businesses reduce ad costs and increase their profits since 1998.Chris helps local business owners successfully market to their local clientele with inexpensive online marketing techniques. Free tools and reports for local business owners in Austin, TX can be found here PinPoint Vision

Get Massive Exposure for Your Local Austin Business Without Spending a Dime

Email Marketing

Post from: PinPoint Vision Chris Lagarde, the owner of PinPoint Vision, has been helping brick-and-mortar businesses reduce ad costs and increase their profits since 1998.Chris helps local business owners successfully market to their local clientele with inexpensive online marketing techniques. Free tools and reports for local business owners in Austin, TX can be found here PinPoint Vision

Borrell Predicts Demise of Direct Mail, Rise of Email

1. 1. Auto Repairs  2. Home Repairs -  2.4% increase
2. People are not buying new, and instead are fixing what they already own.
4. 3. Supermarkets – 6.7% increase
   You gotta eat! Consumers are cutting back on eating out, and instead, are cooking in.
6. 4. Trade Schools – 9.1 % increase
   Many are going back to school to learn new skills.
8. 5. Personal Care – 4.5% increase
   Since the big indulgences are on hold, many are hanging on, and even increasing, personal grooming at nail salons, spas, and manicure salons.
10. 6. Accounting – 10.2% increase
    Now, more than ever in the depths of the recession,  people are consulting with their accountants.

7. Dentists – 6.9% increase
Healthcare is very recession resistant.

Full article here

Post from: PinPoint Vision Chris Lagarde, the owner of PinPoint Vision, has been helping brick-and-mortar businesses reduce ad costs and increase their profits since 1998.Chris helps local business owners successfully market to their local clientele with inexpensive online marketing techniques. Free tools and reports for local business owners in Austin, TX can be found here PinPoint Vision

7 Businesses Thriving During Recession

Post from: PinPoint Vision Chris Lagarde, the owner of PinPoint Vision, has been helping brick-and-mortar businesses reduce ad costs and increase their profits since 1998.Chris helps local business owners successfully market to their local clientele with inexpensive online marketing techniques. Free tools and reports for local business owners in Austin, TX can be found here PinPoint Vision

Creative Marketing – 800% Income Increase

by Beny Shlevich

As a local business owner in Austin, Texas you know deep down in your gut that this internet thingy is not going away, and in fact, you can see it’s getting more important everyday. Yet you don’t know how to jump in. You get the calls from the companies promising to put your on the first page of Google. You know they are probably scams.

And while you may have a website, you’re not getting any business from it. The point of this post is to help you dip your toe into the internet marketing pool.

The foundation of showing up high in the search engine results is choosing the right keywords. When you type search terms into Google you are typing keywords. A keyword can be a single word, or it can be a phrase of two or more words.

Long keyword phrases that are specific but not used as often in searches are often referred to as “long tail keywords”.  Chris Anderson popularized the  term “long tail” when he published the book, The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More.

General keywords will bring a rather wide spectrum of people, but you’re not looking for every Tom, Dick, and Harry across the globe. Ideally, you want local customers who live in the Austin, Texas area.

Let’s say you’re an Austin attorney that specializes in drunk driving cases. What do you think is a better keyword to optimize on your website: “dwi” or “dwi austin texas”?

Let’s look at the Google results.

Over 13 million pages have the keyword “dwi”.

Only 404,000 pages have “dwi austin texas”

Which keywords are more likely to bring you real business?

The second keyword would mean less competition to rank on the first or second page of Google AND you’ll get better quality web traffic. Interested in doing keyword research yourself?

Here’s a link to a free quality resource to get started.

http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/

Post from: PinPoint Vision Chris Lagarde, the owner of PinPoint Vision, has been helping brick-and-mortar businesses reduce ad costs and increase their profits since 1998.Chris helps local business owners successfully market to their local clientele with inexpensive online marketing techniques. Free tools and reports for local business owners in Austin, TX can be found here PinPoint Vision

Local Austin Business Marketing – Getting Google Love

by jmilles

Post from: PinPoint Vision Chris Lagarde, the owner of PinPoint Vision, has been helping brick-and-mortar businesses reduce ad costs and increase their profits since 1998.Chris helps local business owners successfully market to their local clientele with inexpensive online marketing techniques. Free tools and reports for local business owners in Austin, TX can be found here PinPoint Vision

Twitter: A Useful Marketing Tool, or A Colossal Time Waste?