BAMsites Website Marketing

Below is a screencast of a tutorial I put together for a client wanting to blog and draw targeted traffic to his website. He understands the importance of doing this, but needs to know more about “how-to” do it right. Below is the tutorial.

Here is a recent letter I sent one of my clients on getting started with the local search game using Google, Yahoo and BING as your ally in showing up on the recent search map listings. I’ve been beating this very live horse for a couple of years now. I actually provide this service for customers of all kinds. For more information on using BAMsites to set up your local search functions, go HERE.

I will follow this up with a phone call, but you need to begin the process of registering at each of the sites below:

Google | http://www.google.com/places/

You will start the Google process by registering a Google Account with your preferred business email address. You will also be issued a free Gmail account with your registration. That email account you can then use with the Google link above to begin your profile and description. There is a verification process for both your initial registration and also for you business profile, you can verify both via telephone or mail.

Yahoo | http://listings.local.yahoo.com/

You’ll do a similar process to get set up in Yahoo Local. You don’t need a verification to establish your profile on Yahoo, so it’s a bit simpler.

BING | http://www.bing.com/businessportal/

BING is very similar to Google – register with a preferred email and establish a Windows Live account (they change the name every few months, but you’ll figure that out). There is a verification process for both your initial registration and also for you business profile, you can verify both, typically via mail. Then you can click the link above to login and begin building your profile and description.

Best Practices
Just remember to include as many relevant keywords as you can, such as:
• Investment Services
• Financial Planning
• Investment Brokerages
• Estate Planning
• Etc.

I’ll check in with you and provide assistance, as well as look over your end product to critique and revise as needed.

There are a lot of nice resorts in the Brainerd Lakes area and throughout Minnesota.

There is none better than Agate Lake Resort near Gull Lake in Nisswa, MN. Theresa and Bill Garry own and operate this beautifully maintained facility with eleven cabins and tons of amenities. It sits on the shores of crystal clear Agate Lake.

They said they needed a new look.
It was mid-February when we first met. I knew from other hospitality sites I have that this is a critical time of year for any resort. Website traffic for all resorts and lodging begins to accelerate as people begin their search for the perfect vacation destination.

They needed fast action.
I built the site, start to finish in two weeks! That’s awfully close to a new record for BAMsites. The owners were super nice and needed a quick turnaround.

The website came out very nice. I used a photo of their road sign to adorn the header with a backdrop of trees and cabins.

Good luck Theresa and Bill. I know this will get the phone ringing for you!

How to BLOG Post for SEO in Minnesota

Here’s a “How-To” I just sent to a new Minnesota customer on getting the most SEO out of your BLOG posting. In order to have your blog posts attract the attention of the search engines, you need to do several things correctly. Below is a summary of the key elements.

1. Choose a topic of interest to your main target audience.
2. Choose a pertinent CATEGORY for your post, you can use more than one if relevant.
3. Make sure you choose several pertinent keywords. Use the Google External Keyword Tool, found here: https://adwords.google.com/o/Targeting/Explorer?__u=1000000000&__c=1000000000&ideaRequestType=KEYWORD_IDEAS#search.none. You’ll recall we randomly put in keywords and will use the most popular words, since that is what your targets are using.
4. Make sure you add a pertinent GEOGRAPHICAL tag to the keyword string.
   For example: “maple grove mn mobile drug testing”. This should be part of the Title, headline and part of the first sentence of the first paragraph. Also put it in the meta information in the SEO section below the content area.
5. Once you have the title and content placed in the New Post, try to make a link or two with keywords that relate to other pages in the website. The best way to do this is navigate to said page(s) and copy (Ctrl + C) the URL from the address window on your browser. Then go back to the admin, highlight the keywords and click the link (looks like a chain in the tool bar). Paste (Ctrl+V) into the Link Window.
6. Remember to place a “More Tag” break after the first couple of sentences. See below.
7. Break up any extended content into paragraphs and use headlines and headings to draw attention to specific items.
8. Don’t forget to add a meta title and description in the SEO region below the posting area. This will also help immensely.

BAMsites welcomes USA Drug Testing of Minnesota offering money saving employee managment services to employers in the NW suburbs of Minneapolis and including St. Cloud and Brianerd, MN.

Loren Beilke is the owner of the franchise. Typical of most franchise websites: They don’t drive business to the franchisee as they are a tiny component of a large “mothership” franchisor website.

To solve the web traffic problem we built a “blog” for the franchise heavily geared toward SEO.

Our strategy involves organic SEO implementation into the static pages, as well as heavily configured blog posts designed to draw geographically targeted traffic to Loren.

Additionally we provided Local SEO Services for Google, BING, and Yahoo designed to draw localized traffic in and around the Brainerd Lakes area.

Good luck Loren, we’ll be tracking your progress and tweaking as needed. Something you won’t get from most web design companies.

BAMsites is different. We not only create a specific strategy for each and every client. We implement the strategy and then track it to ensure the efficacy of the tactics employed. We meet periodically with our clients to assess the success of our endeavor and alter various aspects, as needed, to ensure success.