Creating A Blog For Your Business

02. September 2019 · Comments Off on Creating A Blog For Your Business · Categories: Blogging, SEO, Training Courses · Tags: , , ,

Creating a blog for your business is more than starting a blog, it’s about maintaining it for the long haul.

Creating a blog for your business isn’t enough to make a difference in attracting more customers to your website; gaining more sales and obtaining higher rankings in Google and other search engines.

creating a blog for your businessNow comes the part where most blogs fail as they lack content and new posts on a regular basis.

Unfortunately, we see many blogs start strong with daily blog posts featuring great local content; stories and profiles. However, the spark starts to fade and the content dries up. The blog is left alone with posts that are getting older and increasingly stale every day.

Don’t let this happen to your blog.

Instead:

  • Plan an editorial schedule for your blog. This helps you write in advance, especially when the creative juices are flowing.
  • If you have a staff, assign them to write one blog post per week or two per month, etc.
  • Consider hiring a local high school student; freelance writer or an intern to write blog posts. Many local writers are happy with a small stipend and a byline as they want to gain more writing experience and build their online portfolio.
  • Allow guest blog posts in order to fill in the gaps and boost content. In most cases, a guest blogger will contribute for no charge, but seeks one or two links within the blog pointing back to their website.
  • Use videos as blog posts. If you’re creating and publishing simple videos for YouTube (and you should), you can also use them as a blog post. If you have enough videos, consider publishing a new video to your blog every Friday, etc.

Many blogs fail due to a lack of time; lack of interest or lack of content. None of these should be an excuse. By utilizing other resources mentioned above, you’ll solve the time and content issue. The more you publish, the better your blog will be in more traffic and higher rankings

In addition, use your blog posts to create more interest in social media. Each published blog should be announced to your fans, followers and connections in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and in other social networks.

 

SEO Strategies Need To Be In Place Before An Online Reputation Crisis Strikes

07. June 2019 · Comments Off on SEO Strategies Need To Be In Place Before An Online Reputation Crisis Strikes · Categories: ORM, SEO · Tags: , , , ,
online reputation

In this file photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, fire boat response crews spray water on the burning BP Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig. A 2010 explosion at the platform killed 11 men, and the subsequent leak released an estimated 172 million gallons of petroleum into the gulf. (U.S. Coast Guard via AP, File) The deadline for filing “E&PD” claims in this settlement is today, June 8, 2015.

Most of us are aware the importance of SEO for companies trying to manage online discussions during a crisis.

However, marketers often take the wrong approach by waiting until after the crisis to manage their SEO and online reputation. Take British Petroleum (BP), for example. By the time they implemented a strategy, they had lost control of the conversations and the image of their brand online.

Steve Marino, the man who first took on the task of running BP’s social-media efforts during the BP oil spill says the key is for companies to be prepared and have a strong SEO effort already in progress.

Marino says with a good strategy in place, you’ll already have good results coming up when a crisis hits. Although BP’s efforts played out fairly well, they could have been better had they been prepared with keywords like “oil-spill.”

How do you put an online reputation campaign in place before a crisis?

Marketers need to anticipate potential crises and have some negative keywords in mind to buy against. With negative keywords in place, you can insure positive results come up when those keywords are searched. If you already have an SEO plan in place, you can continue to publish positive content.

Just like there is no magic recipe for instantly obtaining a website the No. 1 position in Google, there is no recipe for instantly getting rid of negative search results.

Despite what some SEO firms may claim, they have no way of “guaranteeing” your negative results will be diminished in a mere month.

The best thing to do it have a strong SEO strategy already in place, one that constantly generates positive content on a few keywords. One of the most important factors is that you are consistent with this strategy, or it will do little good when a crisis occurs.

Although having an SEO strategy in place is important, marketers also need to be actively generating content in order to be successful. For the content to be beneficial, it should cover three to four specific areas of your company. That way, if a crisis occurs, you can disperse the content and drive people to the messages that will calm their concerns. Then you can launch an SEO campaign around the key terms of the crisis.

SEO needs to be at the top of the list for marketers when assessing a crisis situation, however, it’s important not to be overly aggressive. Marketers must appropriately calibrate their SEO response, so that the SEO campaign doesn’t become the story.

For more tips, take a look at our Online Reputation Lab course on Udemy.

Don’t Worry About The ‘Haters’ When It Comes To Business Reviews

02. October 2015 · Comments Off on Don’t Worry About The ‘Haters’ When It Comes To Business Reviews · Categories: Mountain Woods Media · Tags: , , ,

HatersOnline reviews – both positive and negative – can go a long way when it comes to earning new customers and trying to maintain an ongoing positive online reputation.

Unfortunately, some businesses choose not to participate in the online review process because they fear an onslaught of bad business reviews. Let’s go ahead and put this myth aside:

  • Customers can leave reviews for your company whether you claim and confirm your business profile in Yelp, Manta and other review sites. Just because you haven’t claimed your profile, doesn’t mean it won’t be active in review websites. It’s best to participate so you can communicate with your customers and earn higher rankings by completing your profile.
  • Former employees and “haters” might indeed leave bad reviews for your business. However, review websites (such as Yelp) have algorithms in place to recognize and hide negative reviews from profile view. Even so, most intelligent customers can easily spot a fake review (good or bad).
  • Competitors might also leave your business a bad review. Yelp will automatically remove reviews that are proven to have been written by a competitor.

Overall, don’t let a few worrisome reasons keep your business from claiming, confirming and optimizing your business profile in review and mapping websites. The benefits far outweigh the negatives. For instance:

  • For each business profile you claim and optimize, you’re giving your business another opportunity to be seen by a future potential customer. Overall, there are approximately 50 good review websites that allow businesses to set up free profiles.
  • For each business profile you claim and optimize, that’s one more inbound link from a reputable website pointing back to your company’s website.
  • Many review websites, such as Yelp, rank high in Google on local search terms. Therefore, if your business can earn a higher position in Yelp, it will automatically earn a higher spot in search engine rankings.
  • Since more and more people are relying on smartphones and tablets, they are also using review apps, such as Yelp, in order to find restaurants; coffee shops; hotels and other businesses. You’ll want make sure your business is visible and up-to-date so future customers can find you in various review apps.

Learn more about online reputation management; Yelp and earning more local traffic to your website by previewing (free) these courses in Udemy.com:

“Online Reputation Management: Handling Negative Reviews”
https://www.udemy.com/online-reputation-management-negative-business-reviews

“Promote Your Business and Earn More Sales By Mastering Yelp”
https://www.udemy.com/mastering-yelp

“Earn More Sales By Increasing Local Traffic To Your Website”
https://www.udemy.com/earn-more-sales-by-increasing-local-traffic-to-your-website

 

 

Mountain Woods Media, LLC Releases First Udemy Course

10. August 2015 · Comments Off on Mountain Woods Media, LLC Releases First Udemy Course · Categories: Mountain Woods Media, ORM · Tags: , , ,

Mountain Woods Media, LLC releases first ORM Udemy CourseMountain Woods Media, LLC, a content development firm, has released its first training course on Udemy.

The course “Online Reputation Management: Handling Negative Reviews” is designed for large and small businesses; professional and medical services, and other firms who need to manage and improve their online business reviews.

“Unfortunately, some businesses and professionals receive negative reviews in Yelp, Google Places or on other online review websites,” says Mountain Woods Media Vice President Steve Phillips.

“This course is an easy-to-follow guide on how to respond to negative reviews and turn them into positive reviews for your company,” he adds.

This “Online Reputation Management: Handling Negative Reviews” Udemy course covers:

  • Understanding how Online Reputation works for businesses and individuals.
  • How to take proper steps in handling online negative business reviews, including how to respond to them.
  • How to turn a negative review into a positive review.
  • How to claim and optimize online business profiles and map listing websites.
  • How to manage your business’ online reputation.
  • How to create easy content and optimize it for better rankings in Google and other search engines.

Currently, students can preview two (2) course lectures for free, including:

  • Lecture 1: “Everything’s Online As It Happens”
  • Lecture 2: “Understanding Online Reputation Management”

The three-hour course features 22 lectures and several downloadable documents. Students may participate in online question-and-answer discussions with other students and Phillips. Mountain Woods Media, LLC will announce “office hours” soon in which students can connect live via Skype for more one-on-one training and instruction at no additional charge.

“Online Reputation Management: Handling Negative Reviews” is currently available for $49 and is available at https://www.udemy.com/online-reputation-management-negative-business-reviews/

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Mountain Woods Media, LLC is a content development firm specializing in Search Engine Optimization; Online Reputation Management and App Search Optimization. Online Reputation is how a business or a person appears online through search results. The process by which one continuously improves their online reputation is called “online reputation management.” Fresh and positive content helps improve your online reputation in overcoming bad publicity; bad business reviews or making a life mistake.

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Udemy is the world’s online learning marketplace, where over 7 million students are taking courses in everything from programming to yoga to photography and much, much more. Each of Udemy’s 30,000+ courses is taught by an expert instructor, so every course is available on-demand, and students can learn at their own pace, on their own time, and on any device. For more information, visit http://udemy.com

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