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Google’s “Near Me Now” Adds GPS-like Convenience for Smartphone Users

While that guy from the mobile phone company walks around asking “Can You Hear Me Now,” iPhone and Android users can get answers to a more pertinent question: “Are you near me now?” “Near me now” is Google’s latest feature for smart mobile phones. Released earlier this month, “Near me now” is designed to solve two problems for the Google user on the go. First, it uses your “location-aware” cell phone to place you in a given area and help you locate nearby streets or businesses. For example, if you are standing in front of a restaurant, the service serves up reviews submitted online about the restaurant. Further, the service will find and serve information on similar restaurants in the area, based on your location.

Industry experts speculate that this handy feature – which requires no typing of search terms to work – may ultimately signal obsolescence for such popular sites as MapQuest, Urbanspoon and Yelp (a company that incidentally was recently being considered for acquisition by Google).

As other phone companies inevitably release their own iPhone and Android knockoffs, the importance of having a Google profile and Google map positioning for your business is both obvious and extremely necessary. Fortunately, help for “Near me now” readiness is near you now. Contact us right away to discuss these extremely effective rankings boosters.

Online Reputation Management: Are Your Customers with You or Against You?

Every business, no matter how honest and hard working, is going to have customers who just cannot be satisfied, no matter what that business does to try to make them happy.

Unfortunately, these are usually the people who decide to vent their frustrations online. People who aren’t happy with something are more likely to express their opinion publicly than those who love your business. As much as you hope good word-of-mouth and internet postings will help support your presence on and offline, what you will probably find is that you have to spend time putting out public relations fires. This is a vital practice known as Online Reputation Management.

Surprisingly, many companies are only now coming around to understanding the importance of Online Reputation Management. A 2009 study pointed out that of all the Fortune 100 companies, as few as 10 percent of the top brands controlled the majority of the top 10 search engine rankings that mentioned their company. Even more alarming, nearly 25 percent of all the companies shared their search engine ranking space with negative press on non-owned sites.

As you can see, effective online reputation management is even more necessary now than it was just a few years ago. This recent article revealed that 84 percent of consumers are more likely to seek out opinions online about a product or service today, than they were just a year ago. So good press about your product online is vital.

Bad reports are often posted on websites with powerful search engine ranking capabilities. It is common for many companies to see “rip-off-report”-style derogatory reviews ranking just below – or even above – their own branded website in search engines results.

Fortunately, there are many ways to effectively apply reputation management to your brand. What it basically boils down to is this: Fight fire with water. Provide positive and neutral content that gives search engines something new to see.

So, how do you know if your company needs reputation management? It is quite possible that your reputation is being unfairly tarnished right now. Here’s an easy way to find out what people are saying about you:

Search your company name and your domain name on the major search engines. Eliminate all of the organic search results that are from your website. Now, examine the remaining search engine results. Do you like what you see? Are there results with less-than-flattering comments regarding your company or your products and services?

If the gripes have merit, resolving the problem is obviously your first and best option. By investigating and repairing the problems pointed out by the complaint, your business builds on its positive reputation.

Of course, other people are never satisfied and just like to complain. They’re entitled to leave whatever comments they will, true or not, on any site of their choice. Short of slander or defamation of character, you can’t sue to have those comments removed. However, you can fight back with new positive or neutral content that moves those negative comments off the first two pages of the search engine results.

Here are 10 basic musts that can start pushing down those bad reviews and replacing them with positive and neutral press – and create a better showing for you for organic search results.

1. You do have a website, right?

   It’s amazing how many companies still operate without a web presence. If you are reading this and your company, does not have a website yet, welcome to the 21st century. Put up a site and fill it with copy and keywords that promote all the good things about your company. Include positive reviews and testimonials from real people who like what you do. Post press releases announcing positive happenings at your company.

2. Who’s minding your blog?

   Yes, your company needs a blog. You don’t have to post on it every day but even a single post each week provides more content for the search engine bots to look at when they come crawling. By making steady additions to the content volume on your site, you are telling the search engines that your site is active and important, which helps your site to rank better.

   Use your blog to link back to your homepage. Be sure to mention your company name in the article titles, in posts, in your link text (anchor text) and anywhere else you can get away with it. The more often you post keyword-rich content on your blog, the easier it is to rank organically. One important point to remember is, the higher your positive pages rank, the more derogatory comments they push out of view.

3. Sub-domains are separate sites. Use them to your advantage.

   Google sees sub-domains as separate sites from your main website and will often times include one of your relevant subpages or sub domains in searches relating to your brand name and keywords. This helps push down other websites ranking for those same keywords. A sub-domain is a section on a website that links from the homepage, and is usually segmented to a particular theme or audience. (For example: http://commtruck.ford.com )

4. Create Profiles on Many Social Networks.

   Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and scores of other social networking sites now allow businesses to set up business profiles. The more profiles you create the more potential rankings you will get for your business name, again helping to push down other undesirable search listings.

   Creating the profiles is not enough to guarantee that they rank well. The best way to insure your social profiles rank well is to keep them updated with fresh content and backlinks. In addition, the more connections/friends you make within the network the more likely your profile will rank well.

5. Create your own social network.

   It’s easy! There’s a great site called Ning.com that lets you set up a customized social network. Fill it with positive comments and point it at your website for just $5 per month.

   It’s also a good idea to establish an identity online. Here’s how: Go to Naymz.com and create a profile. You can add all the links you want from this site to your other branded sites. Search bots pay a lot of attention to Naymz.com, so set up your profile today.

6. Put a business profile on LinkedIn.

   There are plenty of reasons to do this. First, it’s a fantastic networking tool. Plus, you can put links on your profile that connect to your homepage, your blog, your social sites, etc.

   From a consumer standpoint, a social media presence gives your customers the opportunity to connect with you. When they have a complaint, they can find you to get their concerns addressed, versus complaining on a public complaint board. This provides the customer the opportunity to go straight to the source for resolution.

7. Create neutral content, too.

   Sometimes when the bad-rep storm is particularly heavy, it helps to create info that includes your most effective keywords, but uses them in neutral, generic ways. Rarely does someone flame on neutral content, so the more you add, the more powerful it becomes at displacing derogatory content.

8. Post pictures of your products, logos and other graphics to Sites like Flickr.

   Again, the idea behind this is that you can create a profile about your company which will rank in the search engines. Many picture sharing sites allow you to create a public profile.

   Flickr.com is the most popular site for posting your pictures. Picasa is highly recommended as well.

9. Embrace Google.

   It’s not a miracle worker, but the more Google products you use, the better. The “big three,” which tend to play very well together in the rankings, are:

   Google sites. The pages are free and you can post whatever you like on them. Make it positive information about your company and watch how easily those pages will rank, especially if you do some back linking to them.

   Google maps. Allows your company to rank in the maps section included in most keyword searches.

   Google profiles. Create one for your corporation with links to your website and other profiles. Be sure to include keywords.

10. Preserve your reputation with Online Reputation Management help from TextLinkBrokers.com.

    Consistent link building to the content you generate is the single most complex and powerful technique you need to employ when it comes to reputation management for your company. People’s first impression of your company is what they find on the first two pages of the search engines. That is why it is vital for you to control the content found on these pages.

    Many SEO companies consider Online Reputation Management to be a “bandage”, or temporary fix. However, at TextLinkBrokers.com, we know from experience that it is an ongoing necessity for keeping bad comments off the first page of the search engine results. .

    Online Reputation Management is not something you should tackle alone. Put the ORM experts at TextLinkBrokers.com to work for you today. Call 866-489-8546, or chat with us online at http://www.TextLinkBrokers.com. Our business hours are 8 a.m. -5:30 p.m. PST. You can also contact us anytime at customer-service@TextLinkBrokers.com!

    Rely on us to help you get negative press off the first few pages of the search engine results quickly. Let us help you build a positive image that will shine through with every search result.

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