SEO Copywriting

Why You Need an Online Marketing Plan Before a Website

Online Marketing PlanBy Gloria Rand

Launching a new business and need a website? Don’t spend a dime until you decide how you’re going to market your business. Online marketing needs a combination of SEO, social media and email to be successful.

Questions to consider are:

►Who is our target audience?
►Are they in our local area, or national?
►Do our prospects use social media? If so, which network(s)?
►How will our prospects contact us? Phone? Email?
►Who will design the web site?
►Who will write copy and optimize the site? 

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Why Fake Yelp Reviews Don’t Pay

SEO Companies Get Stung by Fake Yelp Reviews

If a Search Engine Optimization company approaches you about writing fake Yelp reviews for your business, please say, “No, thanks.”

Why?

It’s illegal.

Nineteen SEO companies were recently caught in a sting operation conducted by the New York attorney general. They will have to pay $350,000 in penalties for posting fake reviews on sites like Yelp, Google Local and CitySearch. 

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Gloria Rand’s Top 10 Blog Posts of 2012

top 10 2012With 2013 on the horizon, I think it’s a good time to take a look back at 2012. It was certainly a tumultuous year for… Facebook! (Yes, it was an election year here in the U.S. but there are plenty of other blogs that can comment on that front.) The social networking site made headlines all year long: switching business pages to Timeline, launching an initial public offering (and seeing its share price tank), and then struggling to monetize its business by introducing new advertising initiatives. Of course, Facebook wasn’t the only big story of 2012. Pinterest introduced business pages to tap into its growing popularity as a social network. Google+ struggled to stay relevant by introducing communities (I’m still not convinced!), while Twitter and LinkedIn both updated the look of their profile pages.

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