If you want to go hunting for trophy elk, you need to hire someone like Northern Rockies Outfitters because they know how to find and track elk so that you are in a position to bag your trophy.  If you want to go fishing for monster Lake Trout you hire someone like Captain Norm’s Fish~N~Fun, a fishing charter service on Flathead Lake – someone who knows where the fish can be found.

We hire professional guides when we want to increase our chances of getting what it is we really want.  Can we do it without a guide?  Of course, but it could take months or even years to learn how to do it on our own.

Hire the Flathead Guide

Marketing your website is not a skill that comes naturally.  Intuition isn’t a factor and the knowledge required is not something you can pick-up as a result of some web searching.  Good SEO takes time to learn and even more time to implement, and test and quantify results.  There is no ‘silver bullet’ or quick fix that will launch your website to the top of the search results. (sorry!)

Gaining page one ranking is accomplished by doing many things that involve onsite and offsite tasks. However, one of the very best things you can do to help your website get Google’s attention is to obtain strong LOCAL links pointing to your website. This is where the Flathead Guide can help you immensely.

Another indispensable benefit is that the Flathead Guide is 100% search engine optimized and being promoted online and offline.  Traffic is increasing daily and this means that more people will be exposed to your listing and see your listing in search results.

Local customers and tourists are looking for your business

Visitors to the Flathead Valley will number in the millions again in 2013 and many of them will be looking for your business.  Make it easier for them to find you by having your business listed in the Flathead Guide!

Not all guides are expensive

A hunting trip to New Zealand or an African safari can cost tens of thousands of dollars, but your smartphone-optimized listing in the Flathead Valley Business Directory costs only $4 per month. It’s like hiring an SEO expert to promote your site for less than the cost of a lunch special at McDonalds.

List your business in the Flathead Guide and start getting more of what you want…more customers! Add your business listing here!

Your best marketing ROI!

The post Why You Need a Flathead Guide appeared first on Flathead Guide Information.

What do I mean by that?  If customers like your website, products or services, they talk about it.  They will like and share your posts on Facebook and Twitter and mention it to their friends. That’s great and we all love ‘word of mouth’ advertising. but I’m talking about gaining Google’s respect.

When the Google spider visits your website it looks at hundreds of things from which it establishes the ‘value’ of your website. Essentially, it determines if your website should be listed on page 1 or page 119 for your keyword phrases. Gaining Google’s respect is what it is all about.

How do we get respect?

One of the critical things Google considers is what other sites link to your website.  Links are like votes for your website and Google looks at every link that points to your site because not all links carry the same weight. The finest link you can get is from a ‘LOCAL authority website‘.  Google knows you can get links from thousands of sites, but if a local business links to your site that carries significant Google ju-ju.

A link for the Flathead Valley Business Directory is a huge plus and it offers other valuable benefits.  Your listing is actually a ‘mini website’ with a photo slideshow, unlimited description, links to your website and all your social sites, plus all your contact information. Your listing is also ‘mobile friendly’ so it can show up in mobile search results. And why is that important to you?

Smartphone Internet access is increasing by the hour!

• 94% of smartphone users have searched for local information
• 70% called a business after searching
• 66% visited in person
• 90% of these users acted within 24 hours

Your customers are searching for you and visiting your site on their smartphones. When they land on your Flathead Guide listing, they see a 100% mobile-optimized presentation.  All they need to do is tap your phone number and you are speaking with a new customer.

Get respect online – and get more customers!

Add your business information to the Flathead Guide and get Google’s respect.  Plus, get your customer’s respect for adapting your presentation to fit their needs.  Nothing is more frustrating than to try to view a standard website on a smartphone and most visitors refuse to do it. They hit the back button and try a competitor.

Get more respect, get listed on the Flathead Guide today!

The post Leverage THIS to Get More Respect Online appeared first on Flathead Guide Information.

Traditionally, that’s how the game is played.  We advertise, promote, network and search for a constant stream of new customers to pay our bills and grow our business.  We experiment, try new things, buy ad space in various publications and broadcast media; the quest for the best (and least expensive) source of new business is never ending.

Sometimes we get lucky, but usually…not so much.  The pitch from the salesperson made sense at the time and the charts and graphs looked convincing, but the flood of customers never materialized.  Then we’re told that maybe it was our ad copy, the jingle was wrong, our ad wasn’t large enough or we need more frequency, but we are told that we should keep tweaking until we hit the right combination of factors.

Traditionally, such an approach seemed to make sense and it was all we could do with the options available.  Fortunately, some traditions need to be abandoned because they simply no longer work.

Ready-to-buy customers

In the brave new world of 2013, shotgun style advertising can still be reasonably helpful in building a brand and creating some awareness, but it seldom drives a herd of customers to our door.  Today, when people want to buy something (anything) they Google it (or Bing it).  From where to eat lunch to finding a dentist, getting a mortgage or where to go fishing; your customers are searching online for your products or services.

The good news is that when people search for a product or service they are Ready To Buy!  Nobody searches for a chiropractor or a furniture store because they are bored; they search because they want to buy something now!  They search online – and today they are searching on their smartphones.

Your customers are looking for you on their cell phones!

The Flathead Valley Business Directory™ was created to capitalize on this innovative and profitable method of attracting new customers.  The Flathead Guide is 100% optimized for search engines and absolutely mobile-friendly.  Your business listing can help you attract new customers at the exact moment they are “Ready-To-Buy” from you!

Most advertising or promotional “opportunities” are one-shot deals or pay-to-play for every occurrence, but your Flathead Guide listing works for you 24 x 7 x 365.  Better still, your smartphone optimized “mini website” costs less for an entire year than most print publications charge for the tiniest of ads.  Get listed today for only $4 per month ($48 annually) – Get Found – Get More Sales – Get Moving!

The post We Sell Ready To Buy Customers appeared first on Flathead Guide Information.

At the risk of being accused of blasphemy by my peers who preach the gospel according to social media and it being the only path to business salvation, I accept the accusations of being a social heretic.  Huh?

I am a thinking man, not a lemming; I try things, measure results and try again.  I am a realist, not a Kool-Aid drinking promoter of hype.  Over the years I have been deeply involved in social media marketing. In fact, two years ago I published my book, “SEO & Social Media Marketing Guide”.  It was a step-by-step blueprint for web marketing that showed businesses how to improve their search optimization and leverage social media.  Additionally, I have helped scores of local businesses establish and manage their social marketing.

Is there value in social marketing for business?

Emphatically yes, but it is not the one-path salvation we have been led to believe it is by many of the self-proclaimed marketing gurus.  It is only one piece of the marketing mix as necessary to our business as advertising, SEO, PR, networking and off-line promotion, etc.

From a business perspective, social media sites are not the most ideal place to try and sell products or services.  The joke among marketing geeks states that “Trying to sell something on social sites is like handing out business cards at a funeral”.  Sure, there are lots of people around, but they are not there to buy things, they are there for social interaction.

Think about it, if you want to meet friends and talk sports, share pictures of your cat and talk about common interests, you don’t go to Walmart; you go to a bar, a restaurant or public place that is conducive to social interaction.  Conversely, if you want to buy something you visit a store.  This hold true online.  When we want to socialize we visit Facebook or Twitter, but when we want to buy something we “search” on Google or Bing.

Where to focus your time, money and energy today!

If you sell things you should focus most of your energy on improving the search results for your website.  Use social media to mingle with others and feel free to make business related announcements, but don’t expect that those encounters will translate into an avalanche of new sales.  Don’t believe me?  Try promoting your next few posts on Facebook, or buy a Facebook ad.  I can assure you that your ROI will not be significant.

Businesses need to maximize search for the best ROI.  What do you think would be more beneficial to your business, to be on page one of search results for your primary search terms or to have 5,000 “friends” on Facebook?  I’ll take page one results any day of the week because when someone is ready to buy my services, they’ll find me.  Those 5,000 friends are sharing pictures of their cats, not talking about my business.

How do you get traction with search results?

Although much has changed in recent years, basic SEO best practices remain as the best way to improve your rank in search results.  There are literally hundreds of things you can do for your website that can affect your results, but the one thing that has not changed is the need to have strong local links pointing to your website.  This is one of the primary benefits of having a listing in the Flathead Valley Business Directory™, the Flathead Guide.

Not only do you get a link from a local authority website, but you also have a smartphone optimized presentation of your business products/services, a Google map to your location, photo slideshow, an editable description with hyperlinks to your website, all your contact information and links to your social sites.  Essentially, you will have a stand-alone, mobile-friendly mini website promoting your business and adding Google juice to your primary website.

Search Marketing vs. Social Marketing Take-Away?

There may not be a more cost-effective, traffic producing method to promote your business and improve your search results that having a listing in the Flathead Guide.

The cost to promote ONE POST on Facebook today is $5, or you can spend $4 and have your Flathead Guide listing working for you all month long.  You do business in the Flathead, let the Flathead Valley Business Directory™ help you reach ready-to-buy customers – add your business listing today!

The post Social Marketing Blasphemy? appeared first on Flathead Guide Information.

Duh!  Talk about a dumb question, right?  That is something every business owner wants desperately, but most people are just too busy managing their business to learn a new skill such as search engine optimization.  Heck, most of us don’t have time to make Facebook posts let alone invest the time and energy to seek out backlinks and tweak our pages with keyword phrases.

Optimizing a website can be mind-numbing.

We all know that Google has a formula to determine who gets listed on page 1 or page 87 in search results. We also know that we can improve our chances if our pages are optimized for the keyword phrases that define our business.  Believe it or not, Google’s algorithm utilizes hundreds of metrics it uses to establish the value of your site as compared to others in your industry and geographic area.

Of all the onsite tweaks and offsite resources you can leverage, one of the most powerful SEO techniques is getting a link to your site from a local ‘authority’ website.  Today, local is everything and a link acts like a vote for your website’s significance.  Google holds such a link in the highest regard. A handful of local links are more powerful than thousands of miscellaneous links.

Today we complicate everything with the need for mobile-friendly web links.  Web traffic is now transitioning to smartphone devices, and Google displays different search results if you are using a PC or a smartphone. This means that in addition to getting local backlinks to your website, you now need to focus on local mobile-friendly authority sites.

Maximize local mobile-friendly backlinks and score!

Addressing this need is the #1 priority of the Flathead Guide.  As the official Flathead Valley Business Directory™, the Flathead Guide is a local authority site that is optimized for smartphones.  Having your business listed may just be the best thing you can do for your business at 100 times the price.  Bold statement?

The link from the Flathead Guide can help do two very important things for your business. One, we can capture smartphone shoppers who are searching for your products or services. They can “Tap to Call” your number and become a customer without ever visiting your website.  Secondly, because Google places such high value on the link means that your primary website can improve its ranking in search results, thus exposing you to more potential customers.

Why take my word for it?

Local clients who have paid for my services know that I have been in the web marketing and SEO business since the last century (1993 to be exact).  Additionally, I can supply a list of satisfied customers who have seen the results I have produced. Well executed SEO and social media marketing produces quantifiable results and a big part of any SEO project is to obtain some strong local links.

Providing that opportunity to all Flathead Valley businesses was the driving force behind launching the Flathead Guide.  For the past 5-6 years, building a local business directory was one of those projects that simmered on my back burner. It seems that with every local SEO project I would be reminded that I should create this resource for the reasons I mentioned, but priorities always seemed to keep it on the ‘to-do’ list.

Best Advertising or Marketing ROI

In January of this year I finally published the Flathead Guide and local businesses have been signing up as soon as they realize the benefits of having an SEO optimized listing.  I spend the better part of everyday optimizing the directory so that it continues to grow and improve in search results, which helps every company in the directory. Essentially, it is like hiring me as your personal SEO expert for $4 per month.

I doubt you can find a better ROI for any type of advertising or marketing campaign than you will receive from having a listing in the Flathead Guide.  If you would like to know more, or have questions about any of this ‘geek speak’, contact me and get your questions answered. If you liked what you just read, take the next step and…

Best Advertising or Marketing ROI

The post Your Best Advertising or Marketing ROI appeared first on Flathead Guide Information.

This began as an experiment. I thought it might be a good idea to create an Infographic (I had never attempted one before this). My plan was to provide a holistic explanation for the motivations behind launching the Flathead Guide, and how a business could benefit from having a listing in the directory.

After numerous failed attempts, I finally produced my infographic and I think it gives a reasonable 30,000 ft. view of the story. The graphic offers a few facts as they relate to the need for mobile-friendly websites, and a few significant benefits to businesses from embracing this smartphone opportunity.

I won’t bore you with the technical details of creating something like this with no experience or outside help. Suffice it to say that it was a challenge and I’m glad I don’t do this for a living. The concept is straightforward, but the execution is a bear.

What is the purpose of an Infographic?

Our world is becoming incredibly complex and more data (on every topic) is being created every day. An Infographic permits a more simplistic visualization of data that flows easily and makes it possible to grasp the big picture with less brain energy. In short, an Infographic is a snapshot of a particular topic, not a detailed analysis.

My purpose in making this Infographic is because I practice what I preach to my SEM clients in that getting links pointing to my website is extremely important. As the sole marketing grunt responsible for attracting traffic to the Flathead Guide, posting this on sites like Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and others helps to accomplish that mission.

Click to see the full-size Infographic.

The post Flathead Valley Business Directory™ Infographic appeared first on Flathead Guide Information.

Do you follow Mark Riffey’s blog?  Mark is another local fellow who is plugged in to all things Internet and he always has a great perspective on what’s happening online with sound advice for businesses on how to leverage these trends.  Mark and I have never met in person, but we sing most of the same songs.  His post today is entitled, Why the tourist drove past your business, and he makes some huge points about how mobile Internet is changing the landscape as it relates to businesses and their marketing efforts.

My local clients and some readers of this blog are aware of my twenty-year involvement with the Internet business.  For those of you that just discovered this site, suffice it to say that I have been building Internet companies and consulting with small businesses since before those fellows at Google completed their thesis on a new idea for a search engine.  In the time since Al Gore invented this Internet until present day, few trends or innovations have had the impact that we are now seeing with the smartphone revolution.

Mark’s article includes some great ideas that every business today needs to be focusing on because ‘Local mobile search’ is a game changer.  With 1 in 4 visitors to your website using a smartphone and Google now showing different search results for computers and mobile searches, you cannot afford to ignore this trend.  You need to become ‘mobile friendly’ and capitalize on the benefits of a mobile-ready web presentation.

For the past two years, the majority of my consulting projects have involved mobile. The early adopters are already seeing an uptick in traffic and new business as a result of having a mobile website.  The smartphone illustration at top-right shows a few examples of local businesses that have adopted a mobile-ready website.  In addition to reaching new consumers, smartphones offer some huge benefits that a typical website does not; such as the ‘Tap to Call’ feature of your phone number.

Learn more about mobile-friendly websites and how
we can help you leverage the smartphone opportunity.

Get Local Mobile Links

Obtaining quality links to your website has always been part of website marketing, and that may be even more important today than in the past.  This was one of the motivations behind our developing the “Flathead Valley Business Directory™”.  My clients (and all local businesses) needed quality local links from authority websites, so we decided to create a business directory to serve that purpose.  The Flathead Guide was launched in January of this year and is already providing an impressive amount of click-throughs to listed businesses and sharing valuable Google juice with every link.

Our objective is to build a smartphone-optimized valley-wide business directory that will include every company large or small, which is why we priced it to be a no-brainer decision and not rob from your advertising budget. For only $4 per month, a business can have a ‘mini website’ that includes editable text, a photo slideshow, all contact information, a Google map to your location, links to all your social sites and more.

Take Away…

Get mobile-ready!  Make some calls and find out what it would take to create a mobile-friendly website for your business. Typically, a mobile site is little more than a scaled-down presentation of your primary website. Visitors want to be able to see what you offer, where you are located and be able to contact you. If you are paying more than a few hundred dollars to accomplish that, make some more phone calls.

Get some quality local links pointing to your website and I would recommend (shameful self-promotion) that you begin by adding your listing to the Flathead Business Directory™”.  There probably isn’t a better advertising value to be had anywhere – at any price.

Trust me, I’ve been playing in this space for a long time and I know the difference between what’s hype and what is sound marketing advice.  Responding to the smartphone opportunity is not optional; it is how you will remain in business and prosper post 2013.  The Mobile Website Revolution is here, and it doesn’t take a lot to play.

The post The Mobile Website Revolution appeared first on Flathead Guide Information.

Do you ever find yourself wondering about the huge investment in time you are investing in maintaining your Social Media marketing effort?  Is it worth it?  Is it (or will it ever be) a good ROI?

The answer can be complex.  If you know that you have acquired new customers from Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, etc. then the answer may be yes. That would have to be balanced against the amount of time you spent in finding those customers.  And…what the lifetime value of a customer means to your business.

If you don’t know if you acquired new customers as a direct result of your social involvement, that’s a whole different problem involving tracking, follow-up, etc.

What if Facebook went away?

Seriously, that’s not a trick question.  We tend to forget that most of these social networks didn’t exist or were not mainstream just five years ago.  Yet today, we spend an inordinate amount of time playing this new social game.  This post is about the business piece of social, not your personal activity that connects you to family and friends.

As it relates to marketing and trying to get more traffic to our website, social activity is mandatory today. Not just because you hope to stumble upon prospects who are searching for your products or services, but because Google is watching.  Google tracks social activity and uses that information (and other metrics) to assign value to your website. That ‘value’ affects your ranking in search results. So, love it or hate it, you need to be playing the social game today. It wasn’t this way just one or two years ago, but things change.

One of the other metrics that make up Google’s algorithm is “links”.  The links that point back to your website, not the ones you have on your website pointing to other sites. It is not the quantity of links, but the quality of those links that Google evaluates, and LOCAL links are paramount.  A link from a local authority website is pure gold.

Life after Facebook?

Remember MySpace? Remember the world’s largest search engine, Yahoo?  Things are in a constant state of flux on the Internet and things always have and always will continue to change.  Facebook makes a lot of people angry and if another social site popped up that offered more or something better, Facebook could collapse faster than you can say… Netscape.

The ONE constant that remains and the one that means so much to anyone with a business website are the links they acquire pointing to their website.  Aside from the Google juice you receive from good links, they create additional paths to your website.  Quality links have always been an important part of Google’s algorithm, and that is something that will probably not change.

If Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter, etc. all went away tomorrow, the one thing remaining that will differentiate your website from your competitors are the quality links pointing to your website.

Flathead Guide Links Rock!

Google likes what we are doing with the new Flathead Guide as they assigned us a Page Rank of ‘2’ in less than 40 days of operation. Quite honestly, that is almost impossible to achieve from a search engine optimization perspective.  I know this because I’ve been an SEO professional since before Facebook left the dorm room of Mark Zuckerberg.

Everything I know about SEO and social media marketing is being applied to the Flathead Guide and I can promise you that the value you will receive from your listing in the guide will continue to increase.  I launched the Guide to address a couple of problems that all Flathead Valley website owners face.

The most difficult piece of every SEO project has been the acquisition of local links for the website; the Flathead Guide is part of that solution.  Secondly, now that Google is maintaining a separate index for mobile sites, it is even more important to have a mobile-friendly listing and our ‘mini-website’ listings help solve that issue.

Spend your advertising dollars wisely

You most likely spend a lot of money marketing and advertising your business and your website. One ad in the newspaper or a few radio commercials can cost hundreds of dollars. Worse yet, those are one-shot expenses with no residual benefit.  A mobile-friendly listing in the Flathead Guide costs only $4 per month and it works 24 hours per day for as long as you maintain your listing.

If you have a website, you MUST have good local links.

If you do business in the Flathead, you need a listing in the Flathead Guide.

Sign-up here!

The post Social Media Marketing – Is it worth it? appeared first on Flathead Guide Information.

It’s simple really…they can’t find it!

Take a deep breath, your website may actually be okay… but if it isn’t attracting targeted traffic or generating leads – you might as well be selling magic fairy dust.  Your website sucks because not enough people see it.

We judge our websites on how well we THINK they’re producing for us. In other words, if your site is generating sales, inquiries, or people tell you they found your site while searching for your products or services you will swear that your site is performing flawlessly.  Life is good and you’re a digital marketing genius!

Unfortunately, this isn’t the case for the vast majority of websites and when you ask their owners they’ll usually say…“My website sucks“!

Okay, Your website sucks! How did this happen?

You spent a great deal of time and money developing your website.  People who actually see it – love it.  The problem is that not enough people see it and when you search for your products or services you can’t find your website either.

It didn’t used to be this way…

A hundred-billion websites ago it was easy to get traffic to virtually any website. You built it, submitted it to a couple search engines and visitors seemed to appear as if by magic.

If your website has been around for a while, you’ve seen your traffic slow to a trickle. If you have a new website, it may as well be invisible because it has no presence in the search engines.

This is why you think your website sucks!

Blame sophisticated search engines and more competition

Today, you must do more than just tell a good story and have an acceptable presentation.  Appealing to your visitors is  only half of the equation.  The most important component is making your site search engine friendly so that you will attract visitors to see your wonderful presentation. THAT is the tricky part and if that piece is missing….your website will continue to suck!

There are only 2 ways to get visitors to your website…

Buy Traffic or Attract Traffic Organically!

You BUY traffic using pay-per-click (PPC) paid advertising or banners and impression-based ad campaigns.

You ATTRACT traffic organically using tactical onsite and off-site search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, and implementing a calculated social networking strategy.

SEO generates free traffic and it lasts virtually forever!

PPC only works until your money runs out.  Which method make more sense to you?

This doesn’t mean that PPC doesn’t work, it works great. PPC can jumpstart a new website and start driving traffic today, but it can be expensive. Optimizing your website to perform better in search results takes a little time and effort, but pays ongoing dividends.

SEO & Social are the ‘Secret Sauce’ of online marketing

Listen up, this is important… SEO is about marketing.  It’s making sure that people who want to buy what you have to sell can find your website.  ‘Social’ is the new word-of-mouth advertising.

When people talk (i.e. Like or Tweet, Re-tweet & comment), Google is listening and rewards those being talked about with better search position.  Social marketing is a tactic, not a strategy or a secret technique.

We know that people research their purchases online and listen to their friends talk about what they Like. If your website is not performing well in search results and people are not talking about you…you’re missing the people who are looking for you…and that really sucks!

Search Engine Optimization, Social Media, keywords, organic search, blogging, linking… yeah, I know these terms are not part of your core business vocabulary, but they are fundamental components of a successful online marketing strategy.

Have you told Google about your website?

No?  You mean you haven’t called Google’s toll-free number and talked to their helpful customer service people and told them what your website was all about?

Yeah right!  Don’t we wish that mega-billion-dollar search monster offered a help desk and some reasonable semblance of customer service.

Let me rephrase the question… do you think that Google knows which keywords people would search on to find your business?

If you haven’t properly instructed Google about your website and the terms that define your business, you’re not reaching your market.  In other words, your website sucks.

Does Google know where you do business?

Having any more luck with that toll-free number?

Have you claimed your Google Local page, or Bing Local pages yet?

The question is, is your business global or local?

Most of us do business locally with other businesses or consumers.  Google knows this and ‘Local Search’ is a top priority. AND, getting strong ‘local authority links’ is paramount!’

Optimizing your SEO strategy to improve local search results can mean the difference of being listed on page one of Google or page 600, which would suck.

If you are not on page one of Google, you may as well not have a website! Think about it…when you search for information, how many times do you go past page one or two?  Right, and neither does anyone else who is looking for you!

Have you been pitched by any of those “SEO experts”?

You already know that optimizing your site for search engines is a good thing to do, and I’ll bet my last cigar you’ve been pitched by at least one SEO “expert”….or maybe one hundred.

WOW!  Those guys are everywhere now and most are extremely proud of their services.  I’ve seen quotes for $5,000.00 to optimize a 20 page website and most of these so-called experts didn’t know what a META tag was a year ago.

My guess is that many of these ‘experts’ are recently unemployed because most of them sure haven’t been playing in the Internet space for very long.

If you knew what to do and had the knowledge to do it yourself, you could save thousands and get your site listed on page one of Google! Let me share a secret… one of the absolute the best thing you can do to get Google’s attention is to have a strong ‘local’ authority site linking to your website.

Is any of this making sense yet?

Are you starting to figure out that the reason your website sucks – isn’t really because it actually sucks…it’s because the things that make Google pay attention to your site are not in place.

So maybe you’re thinking… “What if this guy really does know what he’s talking about.”  Well, what would it be worth to you if…

• Your site started getting new visitors every month…or every day?
• Your phone rang more often from people who found you online and want more info?
• Your sales increased during the worst economic recession in history?
• You could slash your advertising budget?
• You started making more money?
• Your website didn’t suck any more?

This isn’t my first rodeo!

Hi, I’m Tom Heatherington, author of an Internet marketing book for small business entitled, the “SEO & Social Media Marketing Guide“.  I’ve been in the Internet business since 1993 when I co-founded one of America’s first ISPs in Dallas, Texas.

• My company created websites for Frito-Lay, Virgin Records, the Texas Rangers MLB and hundreds of small businesses
• I authored one of the first Internet business books, The Complete Small Business Internet Guide, published by Macmillan and…
• I have been an online marketing consultant to businesses, TV and NFL personalities since before Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched Google
• Google “Tom Heatherington”, you’ll see that I’m the real deal.

How to make your site suck less…

Spend some time analyzing your website and implementing SEO best practices. AND, get some STRONG local links pointing to your website. This is where the Flathead Guide comes in. We offer a ‘mini website’ that includes your text and photos, a slideshow of your products or services, a Google map, links to all your social sites (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and a whole lot more.

Download my step-by-step blueprint that leads you through the process of incorporating tactical SEO on your website and leveraging off-site properties to get Google’s attention. When you discover how easy it is to manage your social media activity to drive traffic to your site, the only thing your site will suck is highly-targeted, ready-to-buy traffic.

If you want to attract more targeted traffic,
talk to more people who want to buy, and
spend less on advertising and promotion…

Your website SHOULD suck!

It should suck traffic from the search engines. If that isn’t happening, you’re doing something wrong! Do something right…add your company listing to the Flathead Guide!

The post Does your website suck? appeared first on Flathead Guide Information.

Improving your rank in search results just may be the most important thing you can do to grow your business.

Why?  Because people search online before making virtually any purchase. It doesn’t matter if you own a restaurant, a beauty salon or a construction company, how well you rank in search results affects your bottom line.

One of the best ways to boost your website’s search rank is by getting good ‘local’ links pointing to your site. Google places huge value on local links, especially from ‘authority’ sites.  A handful of quality local links are more valuable than having hundreds (or even thousands) of other miscellaneous or unrelated links.

Quality Links Drive Ready-to-Buy  Shoppers

A link from the Flathead Guide provides two formidable benefits. One, you get a quality backlink to your site from a local authority site, which makes Google very happy.  Two, it creates a source of new traffic to your site resulting from search activity.

For those of you who know me, have hired me or have read any of my books, you know that I know a little bit about what works online and what’s marketing hype. You can buy a $10,000 advertising blitz that generates a bunch of new phone calls, but when your budget is spent, the calls stop.

However, that link you get today continues to work for you virtually forever. Advertising is for NOW…but a good quality link pays dividends indefinitely.  Add your business listing to the Flathead Guide today and get more than just a link.

Get A Smartphone Optimized ‘Mini Website’

You will receive a ‘mini website’ – smartphone-optimized – where you can show photos of your products, add text and other links to your website, have a Google map and all contact info including your links to Facebook, Twitter and more.  Get all this for $4 per month (paid annually) and the first month is only $1.

Oh yeah, because this is a smartphone optimized business directory for the entire Flathead Valley, all someone needs to do to reach you is tap your phone number. Get listed – Get Found – Get good Google juice! Visit the Flathead Guide now and add your listing…make your phone ring more often.

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