Jim Mueller is the Founder & CEO of http://ReignNetcom. ReignNet “Your Internet Marketing Concierge”. Small & medium size businesses who do not have the knowledge or the time to market themselves online will use ReignNet services to do it for them.

In this week’s video: Many sites make the same content available via different URLs. Say you have a clothing site and one of your top items is a green dress. The product page for the dress may be accessible through several different URLs, especially if you use session IDs or other parameters. To gain more control over how your URLs appear in search results, and to consolidate properties, such as link popularity, it is recommended that you select a canonical (preferred) URL as the preferred version of the page.

In his new weekly video blog here at ESB Journal, Jim Mueller of ReignNet shares tips for selecting and employing ALT tags.

Jim Mueller is the Founder & CEO of http://www.ReignNet.com, “Your Internet Marketing Concierge”. Small & medium size businesses who do not have the knowledge or the time to market themselves online use ReignNet services to do it for them.

In his new weekly video blog here at ESB Journal, Jim Mueller of ReignNet shares tips for selecting and employing META tags, META data, and Title tags in this short video. You can learn more about Jim’s services by visiting http://reignnet.com.

If you keep a eye out on Microsoft Bing’s Local Listing Center you will find that occasionally their system is backlogged and they do not accept new local business listing claiming until their backlog and issues have been resolved.

When visiting the URL https://ssl.bing.com/listings/ListingCenter.aspx the following notice gets posted:

“Local Listing Center Backlog: We have received a lot of feedback recently regarding issues with claiming and updating business listings using Bing Local Listing Center. We are actively working on fixing these issues and will closely monitor the progress of clearing out the backlog. We understand that this has been very frustrating for many of you and sincerely apologize for the long delays. Thank you for your patience!  Bing Local Listing Center Team”

These types of local business listing frustrations with the claiming process are only part of the problems business owners face. Feel free to take a look at the Bing Local Listing Center forums to see the types of frustrations that exist at http://www.bing.com/community/forums/12279.aspx.

Local business listings have become a good local business marketing tool for the local business to reach the local consumer through web searches and mobile searches. After all, local business listings are showing up before organic results in a regular search at the major search engines.

Unfortunately, not all business owners have come to the realization that they do not have to passively let these interactive web pages exist. There are those business owners that have caught on quickly if they claim and update their local business listing, they can use this as a local marketing tool. To some extent some do not even have to bother with search engine optimization (seo) of their website, but rather put their energy into the local business listing.

In order to make these interactive yellow pages a beneficial local business marketing tool, the first step is to claim the local listing before you can update the listing with the business marketing material. This claiming process is partly to blame for the issues Microsoft Bing is encountering with their backlog. Depending upon the website there are four methods being employed to verify the authenticity of the claimant

1. E-Mail
2. Postcard in the mail with a Pin code
3. Phone call to your business phone number with a pin code
4. Manual verification

The Pin Code that is provided is to unlock the local business listing in order to update the information with text copy, keywords, business descriptions, products, services, photos, videos, coupons, and much more. Depending upon the local listing website, some allow you all of these options (e.g. Google) others begin charging a fee for enhanced listing in order to have all this information present to the local consumer through web searches or mobile searches.

The claiming process is very important because if the wrong person gets access to the local business listing for a business they can detract customers to a different location by phone or by website address. Additional damage that can be done includes incorrect information on photos, videos, coupons, and much more. Because consumers are using the local business listings to locate a business, product or service in their immediate area in person, by phone or website, the security around local business listings has to be high priority for any local listing website.

Local business listings started with a basic business directory on the Internet going back over a decade. The process has evolved and matured as social media and mobile devices allowed consumers to start using these interactive yellow pages to post their reviews as well as use them to locate a business, product or service in their local area. There are over 60 local business listing websites on the Internet in five different categories. They include the search engines, social communities, 411 websites (aka yellow page type websites), GPS websites and the age old business directory.

It is absolutely important to not passively wait for the local listing websites to put the appropriate security in place to claim your listing. The complexity of these local listing websites to put security in place ranges to include not only the obvious claiming process, but many of them allow data to be inserted from other databases on the Internet and I cannot say I am clear there is good security around this later process. If someone wanted to hijack a local business listing, they could just as easily insert the wrong information through a low level business directory that sells its data upstream or inserts its data directly into a higher level local listing website.

Depending whose data source you use, there is an estimated 30 million businesses in the U.S. While the top search engines like Bing, Google and Yahoo have “some” front end security to their process; their API’s make them vulnerable through the back door. Data is provided to their local listings from 3rd party sources including “get listed” services. Additionally, if someone cannot claim a listing easily, the process within these local listing websites allows for additional listings with the same address to be submitted by anyone. While none of these local listing websites have the capacity to take on the claiming process of 100% of all business all at the same time, the recommendation is to start the claiming process regardless of how long it may take and if they get back logged. This is not just a top tier search engine issue either. The claiming process has to be performed through lower tiered local listing websites, as well, in order to insure accurate information that is being passed around the Internet.

About the Author:
SmartFinds Internet Marketing provides Local Business Listing Management Services and can not only help you claim your local business listing, but also, manage the ongoing maintenance at multiple local listing websites. Not only to help you update the listings with your information, but also with promotions, coupons, QR-Codes, offers, videos and photos. SmartFinds Internet Marketing – http://www.smartfindsmarketing.com.

After months in production, WebBoar.com has launched — using innumerable sources from across the internet, the service sniffs out complete statistics for more than 120 million websites – for free.

Whatever users want to know about their competition – be it all the domains hosted on an IP address, backlink and outbound link stats, visitor geography, search queries, screenshot history, physical server location, hosting information, related websites or anything else – WebBoar.com presents it in a highly-detailed, easy-to-understand format.

The primary service offered is website analytics, which is available on a one-click basis. WebBoar.com users can now see where their visitors are coming from, what they typed into search engines to get to the site, which site pages are most popular and much more crucial information. Having the most comprehensive IP network database available online also allows WebBoar.com to offer IP analytics, which makes searching for all domains on an IP address or IP subnet much simpler than it ever was before.

Additionally, the service employs a series of complex algorithms to estimate website values and SEO scores. When users insert the WebBoar.com code into their website text, they will be provided with the latest information on how their backlinks are operating, and can also have their HTML code checked – invalid site programming is one of the key reasons for bad rankings.

Finally, WebBoar.com offers advice on choosing a hosting plan: an up-to-date list of all major hosting providers and a series of easy-to-use comparison charts show users the best options for their individual situations.

For more information, to register or remove your site from the listings, visit http://webboar.com.

Since Google rolled out its personalized search feature for all users, SEOs have raised concerns about its affect on tracking rankings for their companies and clients.

Minneapolis-based web design agency Internet Exposure has developed and launched Google Camo, a Firefox add-on that allows SEOs to easily and automatically opt out of Google’s personalized search when signed out of their Google account.

“Anyone who chooses to opt out of personalized search for SEO research purposes will benefit from this add-on, especially those who regularly delete their cookies” says Internet Exposure.

Since Google rolled out its personalized search feature for all of its users last month, SEOs have raised concerns about its affect on tracking rankings for their companies and clients. Extensive competitive research or even personal browsing can trigger search personalization and push frequently visited sites to the top of a results page. This is problematic for SEOs who are evaluating a new market or trying to track their progress.

Although users are able to opt out of the feature, deleting cookies automatically returns users to Google’s default setting, which optimizes search results according to the user’s web history. Google Camo solves this predicament by allowing users to automatically opt-out of personalization every time they clear their cookies. Google Camo’s simple color-coded icon also lets users know when Google’s search personalization is enabled and altering search results.

Developing this Firefox add-on is just one of the many ways Internet Exposure is constantly evolving with trends in search engine optimization, which affect its existing and prospective clients. Internet Exposure is a full-service Internet marketing agency that designs, builds, markets and supports its clients across multiple web platforms.

For more information visit: http://www.iexposure.com/googlecamo.

by: Melih Oztalay, CEO of SmartFinds Internet Marketing

If you do a search on “local business listing hijacking” you will find information related to situations in which a competitor hijacked another businesses local listing to their benefit.

As of December 7, 2009, Smart Company wrote an article about hijacking prevention. In New Zealand a florist is facing 7 years for hijacking local listings of competitors.

This is a real situation that can and does have an impact upon a business that is not paying attention to their local business listings. If your business relies on the local consumer market for its primary revenue and you are not clear about local business listings, then you need to get caught up real quick.

For one thing local business listings are the demise of the traditional yellow pages. If the traditional yellow pages have not already seen their coffin and at minimum a door stop, then free local business listings are the nails in the coffin. Certainly you will find that you can save money in this space.

Local business listings give a local business the ability to not only have their general information available, but photos, videos, coupons, offers, discounts, promotions to name a few items. Additionally these can be updated 24×7×365. Certainly none of these are features of the traditional yellow pages.

The process gets even better. Not only do these listings show up on the first page of Google for a search result in which a local listing is appropriate, but they show up on mobile devices while local consumers are driving around town. Studies have shown that there is an increase in local search and local search via mobile applications on mobile devices. We won’t get into all that detail here, but you can certainly read one of our previous articles about the statistics.

As you can imagine local listings have been evolving in the past few years and so have mobile devices and mobile applications. Starting in 2010 the two industries are merging even closer.

Just in case you’re still not convinced that you need to pay attention to your local business listing, think about the consumers walking through your store and writing reviews about their experience, products or services. If they don’t like something they can twitter or write a review in any local listing website before they even make it back to the car.

These consumer reviews are very important because in part they determine your ranking amongst other local listing websites for a web search (vs. mobile search). They also have a tremendous value to the search engines, which is one of the reasons Google wanted to acquire Yelp recently.

So, let’s get back to the issue of local business listing hijackings. To prevent this process the first action is to claim your business listing at multiple local listing websites. Certainly Google Local Business Listing will be your first stop, followed by Yahoo, Bing, Local.com, Ask.com and Yelp. You will find that there are many more locations, this is only a start.

Aside from getting involved in local business listings around the web here are a couple of other items to consider. Always be sure to have consistent and as much detailed information about your business as possible, particularly your address. Be sure your information is consistent amongst all locations on the web including your website.

Claiming, updating and managing the ongoing updates and reviews to your local business listing can become a time consuming process. It may at some point require more time than your website. Certainly the local business listings can become your website too.

Because there are multiple locations that have to be updated you may need to consider a service that will help you maintain and manage your local listing at multiple local listing websites. When it comes to the web, Google may be the 800lb gorilla, but in the mobile marketing space, the mobile application developer will ultimately decide what database they will use. Furthermore, the local consumer will be the one to decide which local listing they will use to write their reviews. Therefore, for both of these reasons, you will want to manage your local listing at multiple local listing websites.

Waiting to consider your local business listing is not really an option. You will want to be an early adopter as quickly as possible.

About the Author:
SmartFinds Internet Marketing provides Local Business Listing Management Services and can not only help you claim your local business listing, but also, manage the ongoing maintenance at multiple local listing websites. Not only to help you update the listings with your information, but also with promotions, coupons, QR-Codes, offers, videos and photos. SmartFinds Internet Marketing – http://www.smartfindsmarketing.com.

Mike Brooks’ new business venture is designed to help small-to-mid sized businesses dominate the search engines locally.

“If you own a business, no matter how small or what type, you must have a strong web presence”, explains internet marketer Mike Brooks. “People no longer thumb through the Yellow Pages to find us. They go right to their computer and will generally call the very first business that pops up in the search engine.”

Brooks advises that it is no longer good enough to simply have a website. Most businesses websites just float out in cyber space. They must come up on the first page of Google and other search engines.

In the ever-changing and evolving world of the internet it is becoming increasingly more and more difficult to manage a company’s search engine optimization program or SEO.

“Most small businesses do not have an SEO strategy. And they can’t afford to bring in companies that charge tens of thousands of dollars to do it for them.”, Says Brooks. “(this service) is specifically designed with the little guy in mind.”

The system Brooks uses is designed to get local businesses found fast by utilizing a special arsenal of site campaigns for their business. Direct response methods are implemented to drive traffic to their web site, telephone or storefront. The process combines online coupons, directory submission, Google and Yahoo local listings, regular ad submission to online classifieds, as well as online video creation and submission.

Brooks offers a free report that explains the importance of local business presence in the search engines. For more information, visit www.offlinemarketingonline.com.

BizNdex LLC, a local search and social media marketing agency, is challenging local small and medium sized businesses to re-evaluate their marketing plans for 2010.

Small and medium sized locally owned or operated businesses have not had the pain to change their marketing techniques in the past. However, with the recession effecting more people, SMB’s are now realizing that few people actually search for local businesses in print anymore.

Local marketing studies show that while many print ad rates continue to climb, less people rely on newspaper and phone book advertisements to help them find the everyday products and services that they need. “With the convenience of always-on broadband Internet, WiFi, and Internet-enabled Smart Phones, it’s now considered more convenient and more reliable to simply search online than to try to hunt down a current phone book and recite the ABC’s all the way through the Yellow Pages.” said Tony Darrick Baker, Vice President of Marketing for BizNdex LLC.

Baker states that consumers today have changed their behavior. “They are not only using technology to make their lives easier, but they are specifically going out of their way to use technology that helps them to avoid intrusive television and radio advertising as well.” said Baker. “The best way to target consumers today is to be found where they are looking, when they are looking for your locally available products and services. Local search and social media marketing by BizNdex will help small and medium size businesses do this without all of the cost, time and education requirements of stopping everything to try to do it themselves.”

BizNdex has created a strategic marketing plan that helps businesses get found online through multiple types of campaigns within Google and other major search engines. “We not only help businesses with their paid text advertising, but we work to get them natural search engine results and likewise into all of the major online local map and GPS sites and review services.” said Carl Reichart, Chief Creative Officer at BizNdex, LLC. “We use a variety of tactics to accomplish this so that business owners can continue to focus on their core business while getting great exposure online.” said Reichart.

To find out more about how your local small and medium business can get found on the first page of Google in 2010, sign up for the free Business Marketing Intervention Webinar: http://bizndexblog.com/marketing-intervention.

The Internet is a medium that is ever-changing and no one knows it better than the professionals who make their living online. This is even more true from those professionals who treat search engine optimization like a sport.

Now, in the “game” of SEO there are those who understand that every week there are new concepts that redefine the enounces of ranking in the search engines, but most of those ‘game changers” seem to fizzle out.

Michael Smith of metafever.com, is a pioneer of a new concept called the “LinkWheel”. He is also the owner of the largest linkwheel development services.

What is a Link Wheel?
Simply put, Link Wheels are the successors to the link silo and cyclic linking processes which have been around for quite some time. The basic premise of a linkwheel is well written original content, and then a series of blogs that are created on high PR web 2.0 properties. Then the articles are put up on each of these properties in a special linking process, which will be identified by the SEO consultant in consultation with the website owner. Depending on the choice of the website owner, there are a number of high PR back links that are put up, leading to these newly created properties.

Conceptually, in one fluid action, there are multiple optimization strategies that are achieved – keyword analysis, the creation of blogs, making of videos, writing of unique keyword rich content, building of a number of high PR back links, and obviously higher traffic.

Smith explains that Link Wheel is ” . . . the only enterprise level SEO firm focusing on linkwheel development. If you are serious about your website and the future of your business, you simply cannot put off creating a linkwheel any longer”.

For more information, visit http://www.linkwheel.net.