SEO tips and tricks for local pet businesses

Today we are sharing one of our top tips for localized pet businesses to get higher ranking results on Internet searches.

Have you ever noticed that when you perform a search for a local business in Google, Yahoo, Bing or other larger search engines, you see a few pinned local searches at the top of your search results?

Take 'pet sitter atlanta' for example as a basic search. The first search results you see are several paid search links, but the next results you see are search results from Google Places.

According to Google...

"Each business listing on Google is in fact a giant 'cluster' of information that we get from a few different places: Yellow Pages, for example, as well as other third-party providers. However, the basic information that you submit through Google Places is the information that we trust the most. This means that it will appear instead of any basic information that we get from anywhere else."

One of the best ways for local pet businesses to get noticed through search engines is to add a listing on Google Places (Yahoo! Local and Bing Local, as well). It's very easy to do and can help your effort to be on the front page of Google for search terms related to your local pet business.

All you have to do it go to the following sites and complete the process of adding a page. Be sure and pay particular attention to completing the entire page, along with appropriate categories and key words that are specific to your pet business and location. You can also add photos, videos and more; all items that will round out and create a page that represents the differentiation for your pet business.

• Google Places
• Yahoo! Local
• Bing Local

Another avenue for increasing your Google, Yahoo! and Bing search results, while increasing your opportunity to be higher up in these search engine results is to add yourself to other directories like Yelp, Merchant Circle, Kudzu and more. It is known that Google also pulls information from these other sites to add to the Google Places experience for users.

Don't be shy about asking current customers to review your business on these sites as well, as it can add to the experience that current and potential customers see about your business.

For more information, feel free to contact us to help with additional ways for you to market your pet business, get noticed, increase sales and your customer base.

Differentiation is key to helping your pet business stand out in a busy market

The pet business market is getting very busy. Everyone wants to get in on a growth market...

"According to a recent article in Pet Industry News International, "the pet industry continues to perform as recession resistant, according to the American Pet Products Association, which released its 2010 Pet Industry Spending Figures recently. Overall spending in the pet industry grew by 6.2 percent from $45.53 billion in 2009 to $48.35 billion in 2010."

This is the very reason the pet business is growing. With growth comes a crowded and busy market. Everyone from current successful pet businesses to general big box stores to budding entrepreneurs, wants to get in on a growing, 'recession resistant' industry.

So what's a pet business to do as the pet business industry continues to become crowded and busy?

Differentiate

According to Dictionary.com - Differentiate means...

–verb (used with object)

1.

to form or mark differently from other such things;distinguish.

2.

to change; alter.

3.

to perceive the difference in or between.

Pet businesses need to differentiate, stand out, be different, and in the process get noticed for being cutting edge, ahead of the curve, attract attention, spur sales, build your potential customers base, and keep ahead of the pack; whether that be with their service or their product.

There are a wide variety of ways for you to structure, alter, update, promote and market to differentiate your business to appeal to this growing market. Think about your answers to these questions to get you started on a path of differentiation...

• What makes my pet business different?
• What will help my business, products and services stand out from the pack?
• Does my business fit with the current trends for the pet business market?
• What does my market want?
• What 'out of the box' marketing can I do to get noticed?

And feel free to contact us to learn more about how you can differentiate your pet business and further your market to increase sales and build your customer base.

Great marketing tips included in Pet Age Magazine's June issue from Pawsible Marketing's founder, Leslie May

Be sure and read the article in the latest issue of Pet Age Magazine, "Web-Enhanced Marketing." It's a wonderful overview of how pet businesses can use a wide variety of tools in their 'marketing toolbox' to extend their marketing efforts.

In addition, Leslie May, Founder of Pawsible Marketing, provides some great tips in the article to help you learn to tie your traditional promotions with web-based tools to help your marketing be the most effective possible; and reap the benefits of an integrated marketing program.

Pet industry continues growth trend.

There really is no doubt that if there is any industry to be in right now, it's the pet industry.

According to a recent article in Pet Industry News International, "the pet industry continues to perform as recession resistant, according to the American Pet Products Association, which released its 2010 Pet Industry Spending Figures today. Overall spending in the pet industry grew by 6.2 percent from $45.53 billion in 2009 to $48.35 billion in 2010."

Items of note in the report indicate:

• The APPA forecasts continued growth through 2011 with a total spending to exceed $50 billion, a 5.1 percent increase.

• Health care related pet spending continues to show the greatest growth within the pet industry, according to APPA figures, with spending on veterinary care growing by 8.1 percent to $13.01 billion in 2010.

• The survey shows that the number of U.S. households that own a pet has increased by 2.1 percent to an all time high of 72.9 million. About four out of 10 pet owning households are multiple pet owners.

• The breakdown of the number of pets owned are as follows: 78 million dogs, 86.4 million cats, 151.1 million freshwater fish, 8.61 million saltwater fish, 16.2 million birds, 16 million small animals, 13 million reptiles and 7.9 million equines.

Read more about the APPA's Pet Owner Industry Stats and Trends.

The importance of change in marketing your pet business.

Marketing has never been as challenging as it is now, and all bets are that it's going to continue to be challenging. It's a conversation I've had frequently with clients over the years.

I remember 'back when.' I grew up in an entrepreneurial family.

My father owned and operated a family shoe store in a small town from the time I was born, until I was into my 30's, grown and established with a career of my own. This family shoe store serviced a community of 7,000 for many, many years and was 'the place to go' for shoes for the entire county.

I saw lots of changes in my years helping my father run his business. I remember vividly the annual sales that he used to hold. He would run a full page, color advertisement in the local newspaper, and people lined up around the block for the doors to open on the day the sale started. 'Back when' that's all it took to make a big sale successful.

As years went by, thing changed. Competition moved in, a large 'not to be named' discount chain opened a store on the outskirts of town, people started traveling to a larger town in the next county to shop at the new 'mall.'

That's when my father's business changed dramatically, and so did business for many of the other shops in the community. Many went out of business, but my father had the forethought to alter how he marketed in a changing environment. And that's where I learned that when things change, you have to change with them to remain successful.

'Back when' communities were tighter and closer knit, there wasn't an Internet, there wasn't a local mall, people didn't travel for shopping trips to larger cities. They supported their local businesses and stayed closer to home, getting their news from the local newspaper and radio station (if your community was large enough to have one.)

The World is a very different place now. We have the Internet, we have online shopping, we have many places where people can go to shop and purchase everything they need all in one place, competition is overwhelming.

What does all this mean? It means that marketing your pet business has to change with the times to be and remain successful. You need to market differently, find ways to stand out from the crowd, market in locations where people frequent, whether that be online or offline and create a good base of loyal customers that will share your great story. Marketing in the digital age is a very different ballgame than it was 'back when.'

Yet, it is very possible to be successful over time in marketing your pet business in a constantly changing environment. How? By finding and creating innovative ways to market to your specific target audience, have the forethought to anticipate changes and trends, and take action quickly, effectively, efficiently, and cost effectively.

Photo credits: Change.

Recognizing disguised comment spam on your pet business blog.

Spam

 [spam]
noun, verb, spammed, spam·ming.

1.

Trademark . a canned food product consisting especially of pork formed into a solid block.

2.

( lowercase ) disruptive messages, especially commercial messages posted on a computer network or sent as e-mail. –noun

3.

( lowercase ) to send spam. –verb (used with object)

There is nothing worse than spam, (notice the word is lowercase :), whether it's a noun or a verb.

It's been going on for years, but more and more lately I have been receiving a lot of, what I call, 'disguised spam' on my blogs. That is spam disguised as links in the url, or in the comment itself, that are left on my blog with comments related or unrelated to my blog post. This type of spam is highly annoying, but most importantly it leaves me with a complete distaste for the company that has left the spam comment; as it will for other bloggers and those that read your blog.

There are many companies, including (formerly) respected pet companies, that have hired 'link farms' to search out 'like minded' and high page ranked blogs and leave comments with url links or links in the spam comment in order to receive link backs. They think that this will increase their Google search rankings. But what this actually does is diminish the trust and respect I have for that company and quickly make me press delete.

Here are some examples of 'disguised spam':

• Comments that say just a few words, like “good post” with an additional enticement and link to visit their site.
• Comments that include URLs in either the comment itself, or the URL box of the comment submission form, which may or may not be related to a blog post or the comment. For example, a comment seems to be related to the post, but includes a link to a site to gain further information or make a purchase, but in reality is just a ploy to get a link back from your site.

Here's one of my favs from Johann's Blog:

He is so cute... Puppy Dogs are the best! Like the Beach Boys too!

By Promotional Pens on Putting my toys away! on 2/11/11

On the surface it seems like this could be a legitimate comment, but the 'By Promotional Pens' (where there was a link that I deleted for this post) gives it away that this is just a link back farm comment.

There are other examples that are a bit more obvious, including:

• Comments that are made up of completely unrecognizable characters and/or a mish-mash of words and letters.
• Comments that include only a list of links.

There are several ways to combat 'disguised spam' including:

• Setting your blog to moderate all comments before publishing.
• Utilizing your blogs word verification system for leaving comments. (Although, I don't recommend this option as it discourages comments from those who aren't registered, and I want commenting to be available to everyone).
• Mark spam comments as 'spam' left in your comments to deter further spam.
• Deleting the offending comments.

What do I do? I set comments to be moderated, make commenting available to everyone, and take the time to mark them as spam and delete them, because I want to encourage anyone and everyone to comment, whether they have an account with my blogging system or not.

The most important thing you want is to keep your blog true, honest, clean and engaging. So watch out for 'disguised spam,' help clean it up and don't fall for the trick of leaving 'disguised spam' on other blogs, because Google is watching and actually disapproves of these methods, defeating the purpose, but most importantly decreasing the credibility of your company.

There are much more effective and ideal ways to get link backs for your website or blog, and help you increase your Google rank and pagerank. More on that later.