How to Write a Local Business Review and Why You Should

Think back to the last time you received excellent service from a local business in your neighborhood. What did you do to show your appreciation? Did you know that writing a local business review on websites such as Google Places, Yelp and Citysearch is one of the best things you can do to bring in new customers for your favorite merchants? Let's take a look at why local business reviews are so powerful and how to write one on three popular business review services.

The Benefits of Local Business Reviews

Local business reviews help persuade potential consumers that your favorite local business is better than the competition and worthy of new business. Seeing positive reviews for a business sends a powerful psychological signal to our brain that allows the content of the reviews to shape and guide our decision, bypassing many steps in the research process.

Local business reviews also have far-reaching effects within search engine rankings. Search engine optimization (SEO) practitioners advocate tactics that include leaving reviews to help a business appear higher in search engine results and thus bring in more website traffic and customers.

How to Write a Local Business Review

A one-time tip or single word-of-mouth referral is a nice gesture, but to really help your favorite neighborhood establishment get new business, nothing beats writing a local business review. It takes just minutes and you can leave one on a dozens of local business directories. Here are a few brief tutorials on how to write a local business review on the most popular review destinations: Google Places, Yelp, and Citysearch.

How to Write a Local Business Review on Google Places

How to Leave a Local Business Review on Yelp

How to Leave a Local Business Review on Citysearch

A Strategic Note for Local Businesses

With all the benefits of local business reviews, you're missing out if you don't make requesting them from your customers part of your marketing strategy. And while it is against Google's policy to compensate customers for a review, many will happily oblige if you simply ask them to do it.

Create an email template, one-page document or a page on your website that explains the value of a review and demonstrates how to do it (you can link to this blog post and videos if it helps). Be sure you kindly and respectfuly request that they leave a review on one or more local business review websites if they enjoyed their service and thank them for their patronage.

Local business reviews are the new gratuity. Writing one goes much further than telling a friend or two or even leaving a generous tip (although those things are nice too).  The next time you experience excellent service from a local establishment, be sure to leave a review on a local business directory such as Google Places, Yelp and Citysearch.

Why Creating Great Content Isn't Enough

Just create great content. It's a phrase that's used by search engine optimization (SEO) amateurs and pros alike to describe what it takes to get Google to bless your humble blog or website with more search engine traffic.

So what's my problem with the advice?  It's been bugging me lately because rarely is just creating great content the end of the optimization process. It's a great start, but you may be the only one admiring your great content if that's all you do.

Great Content is Not Enough for Google

Even Google will tell you that there's more to SEO than great content. They've listed a Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide on their SEO resource page of Google Webmaster Center. As they describe it:

Search engine optimization is about putting your site's best foot forward when it comes to visibility in search engines, but your ultimate consumers are your users, not search engines.

- Google's Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

Of course, Google supports the idea of providing value for your human users, but they also highlight changes you can make specifically for search engines. Changes that go beyond just creating great content. 

In fact, Google goes on to list 32 pages full of specific changes you should make to your website specifically for the benefit of Google and visitors. Here are just a few of the things Google recommends:

• Creating unique and specific page titles and descriptions for every page on your website. 
• Building two sitemaps of your site, one for users and one specifically for search engines
• Planning a website URL structures that employ keyword strategies
• Using anchor text appropriately when linking
• Optimizing website images for search
• Using robots.txt and the rel="nofollow" for certain types of links

Some of these changes have very little to do with the quality of your content. 

SEO is About More than Creating Great Content

Ultimately, SEO is about learning about all the keywords and phrases people are using to find your products or services, developing a plan to strategically use the keywords on specific pages on your website, and then creating, measuring and promoting the best possible content to solve the problems or answer the questions of searchers.

My point in all of this is to illustrate that SEO is not as easy as some would make it seem. Countless bloggers begin and end their blogging careers under the false assumption that if you build it, they will come. A lackluster approach to planning or content strategy litters the blogosphere with blogs that never did manage to garner search traffic, despite what I'm sure was excellent content.

Success in search requires an investment in either SEO education or skill, depending on whether you have more time or money. SEO is ultimately a marketing expense. If you're not willing to overcome the learning curve or pay a professional to help you along the way, your great content may not be enough.

What are you doing beyond creating great content to help increase the amount of search engine traffic to your website or blog? Are you following Google's SEO Starter Guide? (Squarespacers, help yourself to some custom Squarespace SEO education right here on this blog.). What changes do you want to make your website that go beyond creating great content? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Integrating Feedburner With Your Squarespace Blog

Not all visitors to your blog are the same. Some readers find you randomly through search engines while others seek you actively each time you post new content. RSS (really simple syndication) subscribers are some of your most loyal readers and are truly the types of relationships that are worth having. I use Feedburner to provide readers with a way to subscribe to Squarespace blog via RSS. Today I'll tell you why you should too and how to integrate Feedburner effectively with your Squarespace blog.

Why Use Feedburner with Squarespace?

You may think, "Why use Feedburner to handle my RSS when Squarespace already has great RSS support?" While I do think Squarespace has done a great job with the RSS feeds, there are a few key advantages to installing Feedburner on your Squarespace blog to compliment Squarespace's existing RSS functionality:

• Subscription Interface - Clicking on the standard Squarespace RSS integration results in a basic XML page which makes users go through the cumbersome process of copying and pasting the feed URL into their RSS reader. The Feedburner subscription process involves a few clicks for seemless integration into Google Reader and other popular RSS readers.
• Feedburner Onboard Tracking - Feedburner features a growing set of tracking and analytics tools that allow you to monitor the growth of your RSS subscribers.
• Feedburner Integrates with Google Analytics - Best of all, Feedburner integrates seemlessly with your Google Analytics data. If you've installed Google Analytics on Squarespace, you can quickly identify your RSS subscribers within your visitors.

Creating a Feedburner Account for Squarespace

To set up Feedburner on your Squarespace blog, you must first create a Feedburner account. The setup process for Feedburner is very simple. To begin, enter your existing RSS feed URL address and existing Google Account information at the Feedburner signup screen. Your existing RSS feed URL should be as follows:

Your domain name + / + Your Blog URL identifier + / + "rss.xml"

For Example:

http://www.bigpictureweb.com/blog/rss.xml

Use this URL in the first step of the Feedburner setup process.

Next, give your RSS feed a title and set your custom Feedburner URL.

Configuring Your RSS Syndicate Squarespace Widget

Your RSS Syndicate widget within Squarespace is the widget that produces a link for people click on to subscribe to your blog via RSS. This is the widget you'll want to integrate with your Feedburner account.

Log in and go to the configuration screen of your blog. Enter your new Feedburner Feed Address into the (optional) Fixed Feed URL field within your blog's configuration screen.

Use your Feedburner RSS feed URL for your RSS Syndicate widget.

The Social RSS Widget and Feedburner

The RSS widget within the Social Widgets tab of the Squarespace widgets menu is different from the RSS Syndicate widget on the main widget tab. The Social Widgets RSS widget displays a list of recent blog posts given an RSS feed URL while the RSS Syndicate widget allows people to subscribe to your blog.

To configure your Social RSS widget, I recommend using the default Squarespace RSS feed URL instead of the Feedburner feed URL because the former helps provide links and search engine optimization (SEO) benefit to the blog posts in your feed.

Use your default RSS feed URL for the Social RSS widget.

By using the Feedburner URL for the RSS Syndicate widget and the default Squarespace RSS URL for the Social RSS widget, you maximize the ability to track your blog's ability to attract new subscribers as well as create an optimal RSS experience for both your readers and search engines.

What are you using to manage your RSS feeds with your Squarespace account? Are you using Feedburner or something different? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Building Relationships with Social Interaction Optimization

We've all been taught that being polite is important from an early age. Say please. Say thank you. Say you're welcome. In the process of habitualizing all this polite behavior, it can sometimes tend to become a little too automatic and begin to lose some of its intended effect. Today we explore the concept of social interaction optimization (SIO), a way to better appreciate those around you and thus build stronger relationships.

Optimization is a concept that drives my professional passion. It's amazing how making a few minor, yet positive changes to a website or process can be all that's needed to drive substantially better outcomes in any online endeavor. In fact, that's the basic gist of several online marketing disciplines such as search engine optimization (SEO) and conversion optimization (CO).

Turns out, relationships aren't that different when it comes to optimization. As with websites, there are minor, yet positive changes you can make to your interactions with others that will help build stronger, better relationships. That's the gist of something I like to call social interaction optimization, or SIO (I can't help myself. I'm addicted to acronyms).Maximize politeness by being gracious instead of just formal or civil.

The idea behind SIO is to optimizing social interactions by actively increasing the politeness of your interactions with others. Why be merely be civil (definition: not rude, marked by satisfactory adherence to social usages) when you could be gracious (definition: characterized by charm, good taste and generosity of spirit)?

Two Examples of Social Interaction Optimization

• Thank You - Don't just thank people for the things they do for you. Tell favor doers exactly what you're thankful for to demonstrate that you can fully appreciate their skill. Instead of just saying, "Thanks," why not say, "Thanks a lot for that report you sent to me. I especially appreciate the layout and polish because it will be easy to illustrate important details to upper-management."
• You're Welcome - We often say you're welcome by saying, "No problem." In the process you shrug off credit for a good deed and miss out on a chance at SIO. Instead, say, "It was my pleasure. You're very welcome."

As with any optimization strategy, it's important not to overdo social interaction optimization. You don't want to be insincere. You want to strive to be genuinely gracious, and have that come across in your intactions. The benefits of SIO include building stronger existing relationships and creating new ones faster. 

What do you think about the concept of social interaction optimization, or SIO? Some may say it's common sense (Yep, it is). Others may find it to be a helpful new tool to build relationships and increase effectiveness as they navigate the highly matrixed world of clients, projects and org charts with dotted lines. I'm very curious to hear your thoughts, so please leave a comment below. I especially appreciate connecting with and learning from people that leave comments, so thank you in advance!

How to Optimize Images for SEO on Squarespace Websites

I'm typically pretty optimistic when it comes to doing search engine optimization (SEO) for Squarespace, my blogging/content management system (CMS) of choice. Most of what you need is available either out-of-the-box or through a few manual tweaks. Optimizing images for SEO on Squarespace are no exception and come with their own little subtleties. Today we'll explore SEO for images on Squarespace and help drive more traffic to your website.

SEO for Images - The Basics

One of my main duties as an online marketer is to increase website traffic from search engines through the process of SEO. When it comes to images, you can increase traffic through SEO in two ways:

1. Increases traffic via image search engines such as Google Images
2. Boost the ability for the page on which the image resides to rank in the search engines

There are quite a few things you can do to optimizes images for search engines, but the basics include using your page's primary keywords within  the file name and alt attribute of the image. Search engines pay special attention to these properties of the of image. Let's take a look how this works.

Optimizing Squarespace Image Files for SEO

 Optimize Squarespace images in a few easy steps:

1. Always be conscious of the size of your image files. In general, try to keep files in a .png or .jpg format under 200kb. The smaller, the better.
2. Use the primary keyword(s) you intend to you use in your page or blog post within the file name of the image when you upload it to Squarespace. Be sure to use a "-" in between words. For example, if Squarespace Image SEO was your keyword phrase, your image filename might be squarespace-image-seo.jpg. Easy, right?(Separate words with a "-" and use your keywords)
3. Next you'll need to change the alt attribute of your image. Switch to Raw HTML within the editing interface of your blog post or Squarespace web page. (Switch to Raw HTML mode to access your alt attributes)
4. Carefully search through the HTML of the pages to locate your images. I find it's easiest to use Ctrl+F and search the page for alt="" to highlight the image alt attributes within the HTML.(Finding the alt attributes is easy even for HTML novices)
5. Using your keywords, enter a brief description of your image that accurately describes the image for those that may not be able to see it.(Enter your keyword-friendly alt attribute within the quotes of the HTML)

Ultimately it's not too hard to optimize your images for SEO on Squarespace. Once your file is optimized, just be sure that the content on the rest of the page supports your primary keywords as well and you should be all set.

The Big (Optimized) Picture

The last and most often overlooked part of SEO for any website, Squarespace or otherwise, is getting links and attention within social media via Likes and Tweets. Getting someone to talk about you on the web is like an endorsement in Google's eyes. You'll be ranking in no time if you can get build links and attention to a well-optimized page with images.

On that note, if you liked this blog post or any other Squarespace tutorial written here on Big Picture Web, be sure to share it on your preferred social network or write a blog post to explore the topic further. And as always, I'm curious to hear your thoughts in the comments below.