Targets - for markets and search engine optimizing

I have been teaching my clients that they must focus on one or more specific target markets to grow their business faster and more controlled. Having specific markets also means that you can create better search engine results. For instance, if you are a dog groomer the term dog groomer is very general, if you have a specialty in poodle grooming, you eliminate much of the competition while appealing stronger to the poodle owner searching for your expertise.

For my own business however, I have long resisted defining my target market. But it is time to walk the talk and focus. I have lots of excuses for not zeroing in on a target - our market is small (wait a minute... the Internet is small?), I don't want start-up businesses to feel left out and so on.

Stay tuned as my business coach helps me flesh out my new focus.

Google Analytics

Step 2 was blogging regularly - here I am.

Step 3 is Google Analytics. Another free tool from Google, this one provides intelligent tracking of activity on your website.
I installed the basic code that lets me know how many visitors, unique visitors, time spent on the site, time spent on each page, paths through the website.
That was exciting - one of my hidden pages has people stay on it for an average of 5 minutes.

Next I added tracking to find out how many people came to my site just to log in to webmail or their website OS. Important for judging the accuracy of my "Bounce Rate" A bounce rate is the percentage of people who leave the site without exploring other pages.

Now I am tying in my Analytics to my Aweber mailing list subscription to see what my conversion rate is on my hidden pages.

Web 2.0

I listened to a speaker try to teach a group of local business people about web 2.0 marketing last month.... in half an hour.
Wow. He was ambitious. You could tell he was excited about his topic and had a lot to share. Unfortunately, he needed 3 hours to even touch the surface.
That got me thinking.
What are the elements of web 2.0 that a local business needs to know. And that brought me to Google marketing. With Google serving up more than half of the searches online, it just makes sense to focus first on getting in strong with Google, and Google is very web 2.0 with paid blogger service, real time statistic analytics, Google local search maps and paid ads in Google AdWords.

So I decided to start maximizing Google for my website.... my business has been primarily a referral fed business for the last 3 years. My website has been kind of neglected.

Over the next 6 months my goal is to get the optimal local results using Google.

Step One: Local Map Listing
I visited the Google Local Business Centre
I already had a Google account so I logged in - if you don't have an account, you can set one up for free.
Next you add your business information, choose a category - up to five - that your listing should show in.
After that you can verify your listing instantly by automated phone call.
Then wait - it can take up to 4 weeks to be added.

I did a search under "Midland Ontario web design" and found my business was already visible on the map - I did have to click the view more results - and there I was item H.

What surprised me though was that my "organic" listing on Google was number two for that search term - right under a directory site called Canada Firmlist. I am the only Midland Ontario web designer listed on that directory which means my listing is number one, two and three on Google for that search term. I guess that shows that some results can be achieved just through relevant content. I also found I came up number 1 on just "Midland Web Design"

Step 2 - start Blogging regularly
This is a hard one for me. I forget. I will try to add a post every time that I work on my Google exposure.