Small Business Shift

Local deal sites are sprouting like weeds. Probably because Groupon is making more money than you can imagine. So the question is, what are the differences – and which one is right for your business? The Local Deal Sites There are far too many sites to cover every one here, so we’re going to look […]

Small Business Shift has some big news. I’m launching a solution for businesses that need a great website, designed for marketing their company, at a very low cost. How does that work? WordPress Made Easy I’ve written about why I think WordPress is pretty much the best solution available for a new website. Those reasons […]

Google’s local ad options come and go all the time – in just the last couple years they’ve tried all of these: Google Tags Google Local Listing Ads Google Offers Google Location Extensions Google Boost The first two are discontinued, the third is in testing – just #’s four and five are widely available now. […]

Google sent out this email a few minutes ago: Google Tags to be retired on 4/29 Dear Google Places user, At Google, we’re always working to innovate and improve ways for small businesses to get online and reach more customers. At times, though, we have to decide where to focus our efforts and which technologies […]

Groupon has brought a revolutionary advertising model to the local business market, and is making a fortune in the process. The company has a website, Groupon Works, which details successes companies have achieved by working with them. But there are also numerous horror stories describing how using Groupon was a disaster for small businesses. So […]

Google announced a new service called Hotpot (notice it is “Hotpot” not “Hotspot”) a month or so ago. This could be important for local businesses, because Google plans to use Hotpot for tying together local business reviews and social data, which should make online reviews even more powerful in determining the success of a company. […]

TMP Directional Marketing/15Miles has released new survey results detailing the behavior of individuals looking for local business information.

“Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via the “natural” or un-paid (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.” – Wikipedia

Is your company using the Internet to advertise, run your operations, or better connect with customers? And is it working? If so, then I’d like to feature your business here on Small Business Shift.

Google announced support for rich snippets in local search on their blog yesterday. Adding this microformat information may help local search rankings – let’s look at what microformats are and how to add this data to your website.