Google 101: Make Money With Your Website

If you are:

- a website owner who wants to make money online

- and, not really sure how to do so

This is the right place!

Many website owners have shared with me that they really do not know how to bring visitors to their site, or said they hired someone else to put up their website and make monthly updates and thought that was all they needed to do.  Some of them don’t have the passwords to the admin area of their websites , and would not know what to do with it if they did have it, they confided to me.

Also, they do not understand the relationship between Google and their website at all.  One gentleman asked me if this Google relationship with keywords was a new thing, and I had to say no, it isn’t.

And they tell me they think they do not have the time to do the work it takes.  Business owners are busy running their brick and mortar business as best they can, and since they are not understanding the importance of having Google work FOR THEM, they just let their website sit where they put it.

After hearing their confessions, they suggested that I ought to train website owners about “the internet”.  I realized they were right.  Maybe website owners do not realize they have a problem.  Maybe they do not understand what really runs the internet and affects their online success.

Please know it would take a complete book to “tell all” there is to know about Google; and, once such a book was written, all the rules could be broken and rewritten by Google at a moment’s notice.  However, here are some basics and how it applies to website owners who want to work with Google to their advantage.

Let’s get started!

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Google Social Search is a new feature of Google searches.  The intention is to increase your personal trust level by including what you friends and aquaintances have said about the topic you are searching for.

If you are a regular person looking for info by doing a Google search, Google has always wanted to give you exactly what you are looking for.  That does not always happen – but now Google wants to help increase “word of mouth”  from your social circle in the hopes that you will trust what they have said more than what Google says in the results.

There are a few reasons the social circle results are coming at an interesting time.  First, if you have a webpage, there are new laws in the US that regulate what you put on your pages in terms of testimonials, ie word of mouth.   A disclaimer must be added to that site stating if you are making money off of the testimonials, and you must show actual results which are being claimed.    Now Google is dishing up ”results from people in your social circle” which include random personal opinions of your social circle – it seems to circumvent the need for disclaimers since none of this is placed on a webpage.  It simply exists all over the internet in a cloud of public opinion.

As an internet marketer, I can see many interesting ways to use this new tool. 

First, if you have a web business, this is going to enhance your ability to become a “trusted source” of information.  Creating a Google profile for your business becomes very useful,  which is a service my business can provide for you.  Within the profile, you place links to your web presence, like your Twitter account , any blogs you have which are linked to in your Google Reader account,  and your FriendFeed account, and even Yelp reviews.   This is another strategy that a web business should pursue, and since this is new, the results are not known but well worth pursuit.  

Will this take away the need for disclaimers on web pages?  If you are linking your reviews through Yelp,  disclaimers become part of Yelp’s problem, apparently.   That alone makes it worth the time and effort. 

Also, your Twitter followers become part of your social network – not only that, Google will include their followers into your extended social network.   The importance of your Twitter account is now becoming clearer.  What topics you tweet can now be part of someone’s social search results.

Search engine marketing is now possible in a new way for real estate buyers and sellers.  Maps.google com is now including real estate listings inside of the google local search page. Is this the start of a battle with MLS listings?

No doubt that marketing is a major player for real estate agents.  Good markets, bad markets – they still sell houses.  The importance of a new marketing channel cannot be understated.  And of course, leave it to google to get this huge ball rolling in the right direction. The world is now used to thinking google when they think search.  This is one more useful way to do a search.

This google local search example will show you what this looks like.   Suddenly, shoppers have lots of fast, free ways to look for a house in a neighborhood, see what is nearby for schools, public transportation,and restaurants.  Also, google will give them directions in an easy way.  What I love the best, though, is the Street View that you can get.  This is a drive by without a drive by.  The only problem is if google has not added your neighborhood to the street view yet.  Results can be sent to clients by GPS, email, phone and by car, yes, certain models of BMW and Mercedes Benz have google maps integration.  Yes, real estate google maps.  Love it.

If you are a real estate agent/broker, by now you are wondering how to take advantage of this news.  The google local search in maps has a site just for your information, advising how to best take advantage of this local search marketing channel.

Your local business can use online marketing to its best advantage by using a strategy that includes sites which are very high in the search engine rankings which use maps.

Take a look at this graphic from hitwise.com.  You will see the number one site for travel is mapquest.com.  Yes, remember mapquest?

My strategy for local business is to visit mapquest.com for your local town. Take a look around at what the “new” mapquest offers on the page.  Look at the sites they pull information from.  Doesn’t it make sense that you want your business to be listed in those same places?  Sure it does. This is a search engine you want to be found in.

The first thing asked is enter a business name and a city. See if yours comes up.  If not, look at the top of the mapquest page, for a round button that says LOCAL, click on that.  Enter your actual town and state. As you look at the categories it has opened up, the second line in the title shows where this information is being pulled from. See if any of these categories match what your business offers as a service.

If nothing else, you can create a video and add it to the TRUVEO section, making sure that you have placed info for your town and your business in the title and tags of the video. TRUVEO also picks up YouTube videos, so if you have added videos there, just make sure your town and state are listed in the name and tags and it should show up.

If you wish to add your business to AOL Local, which powers info for the CityGuide and Yellow Pages, here is what they state:

How do I add my business listing to the AOL Yellow Pages? You can submit a new AOL Yellow Pages business listing by going to our Directory Listing Information page. Any information you submit will be verified by our data provider, infoUSA. Updated data from infoUSA may take up to three months to appear on the AOL Yellow Pages site.

The website is: http://leads.infousa.com/landing/aol.html This is a free listing, so definately add it.

Not surprising that google.com search is beating yellowpages.com in the volume of online searches.  The world is a smartphone away from google local searches, just like it is for yellowpages.com, but the popularity of google makes the difference.

The chart you will see from the link above shows, over time, how google has increased usage 7.48%, while the yellowpages.com site has decreased by 5.81% this year.  Also, this month actual numbers show google usage increasing 4.23%, while they decline 2.78%. But what is really powerful to look at are the sheer volume of users.  While yellowpages.com has 16.7 million users, google.com has 145.4 million users.   Google appears to have a huge advantage, simply by popularity.

I have added the newest search on the block, bing.com, so you can watch as its popularity grows.  Bing.com is the newest effort by Microsoft, and everyone is watching the new kid on the block.  As you can see on the chart, bing.com has a LONG way to go before it even comes close.

Online advertising spending which uses social networks is still rising globally despite economic realities.  The billions of dollars being spent indicate this is the place to be for advertising your local business with local online marketing. The data includes all types of social network spending.   This is not surprising with the rising importance of google search and how it directly connects searchers with local businesses – google is a global enterprise. In the US,  local online marketing has a foothold, and many businesses are realizing the need to be found online through advertising and through social media marketing.  Also, note the percent increases from year to year.  Smart local business owners will continue to change how they spend their marketing budgets to get customers in the door by following the trends. emarketer.com