Category: Google

This blog category is dedicated to highlighting the features and potential of Google products and services. Here, we discuss tools like Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Business, Google Maps, and other ways to make the most of Google’s expansive offerings.

Elevate Your Business Visibility with Local Business Listings on Google, Bing, & Yahoo
In today’s fast-paced digital world, having your business information accurately listed on various online platforms is not just a necessity; it’s a game-changer. At David Martin Design, we’re excited to announce our latest offering – Local Business Listing Management. This service is tailored to help business owners like you gain better visibility and ensure your business details are always up-to-date across key platforms, including Google, Bing, and more.

The Importance of Accurate Business Listings: Accurate business listings are critical for two main reasons. First, they ensure that your potential customers can find you easily. Second, they provide reliable information, building trust and credibility in your brand. Inaccurate or outdated information can lead to lost opportunities and a negative impression.

For a small business in Bloomington, Indiana, beyond the major search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo, there are several other platforms where you can submit your business listing to increase visibility and reach potential customers:
1. Local Directories and Review Sites:
  - TripAdvisor: Ideal if your business is related to hospitality, tourism, or dining.
  - Angie’s List: Great for service-oriented businesses.
2. Social Media Platforms:
  - Facebook: Creating a business page on Facebook can help you reach a wide audience.
  - Instagram: This is especially useful if your business can showcase visually appealing products or services.
  - LinkedIn: Ideal for B2B businesses and professional networking.
3. Local Bloomington, Indiana Resources:
  - Bloomington Chamber of Commerce: Listing your business here can increase local business-to-business connections.
  - Visit Bloomington: If your business caters to tourists or is part of the hospitality industry, this is a great place to be listed.
  - BloomingtonOnline: Shop Local isn’t just a trendy slogan. It’s a call to action.
  - Local Bloomington Newspapers and Magazines: Many local publications have business directories.
4. Industry-Specific Directories:
  - If your business falls into a specific niche (like healthcare, legal services, or home improvement), look for directories specific to that industry.
5. Better Business Bureau (BBB):
  - Listing your business here can add credibility, as consumers often check BBB ratings.
6. Google Business and Bing Places:
  - Businesses can verify and edit their business information, respond to reviews, post photos and offers, and see insights on how customers are interacting with their business.
7. Community Bulletin Boards and Forums:
  - Local community centers, libraries, or online community forums specific to Bloomington can be valuable for word-of-mouth referrals.
How Our Service Works: Our Local Business Listing Management service is designed to be simple yet effective. We take the burden off your shoulders by:
1. Claiming Your Listings: We ensure your business is accurately listed on platforms like Google, Bing, & other important local platforms.
2. Regular Updates: From changing business hours, and updating posts, to updating contact information, we keep your listings current.
In a world where online presence is crucial, let David Martin Design be your partner in ensuring that your business stands out. Claim your listing today with our Local Business Listing Management service and take the first step towards enhanced visibility and success.

Ready to enhance your business’s online presence? Contact David Martin Design today to learn more about our Local Business Listing Management service and how we can help your business grow.
December 1, 2023
The 3 R’s – Every Business Wants to Be Remembered, Respected, & Referred
Every business owner wants to be remembered, respected, and referred. When people remember your business, they are likely to think of you first when they need the products or services you offer. They will also be more likely to recommend your business to family and friends. Respectful treatment of customers will bring them back time and again, and encourage them to spread the word about your business.
1. The Importance of Being Remembered: How being remembered can benefit the success of a business. Examples of successful businesses that have become well-known by creating a lasting impression.
  
  Being remembered can have a significant impact on the success of a business. When people remember your business, it can lead to increased sales, giving you an edge over your competition. Additionally, when customers remember your company they may feel a connection and loyalty, making them likely to return in the future. This can result in repeat customers and steady growth for the business. Moreover, when customers remember your business, they may recommend it to others, leading to referrals and even more business.
2. The Importance of Being Respected: Why it’s important for business owners to be respected by their clients and customers. How respect can increase customer loyalty and help to grow the business.
  
  Respect is an important part of any successful business. Customers and clients who feel respected by business owners and employees are more likely to stick around and become loyal customers. Respectful treatment can lead to repeat customers and referrals, and it also helps to foster positive relationships that are so essential to business success. Respecting people’s time and meeting them on their own terms shows that the business cares and values its customers’ needs and wants.
3. The Importance of Being Referred: The benefits of being referred to potential customers and how it can lead to increased business. Ways to encourage customers to refer others to your business.
  
  Referral marketing is one of the most powerful and cost-effective forms of advertising. It is far more reliable than conventional forms of advertising, as people are much more likely to trust what their family, friends, and colleagues have to say about a business. Additionally, referral marketing can be a great way to expand your reach and gain new customers. Making it easy for customers to refer your business to family, friends, and colleagues is essential to success.
  
  Creating a dedicated page on your website with reviews, links to Google Business and Facebook, and other platforms that take customers directly to the review form is a great way to encourage referrals. This will increase visibility for your business and will ultimately lead to more sales and growth.
Being remembered, respected, and referred will have a significant impact on the success of your business. It is important for business owners to create an impression that lasts and is remembered by their customers and clients. Respectful treatment of customers will help to foster loyalty and keep them coming back. Referral marketing is one of the most powerful and cost-effective forms of advertising, and it is essential to creating visibility and growth. By taking the time to ensure that your business is remembered, respected, and referred, you will be more likely to achieve success.
February 2, 2023
Manage Important Business Information with Google Business

Most business owners will find that it’s quite easy to jump into the Google Business platform and get started connecting your important business information with potential valuable customers. Keep reading below for a breakdown of what you can do with the updated Google My Business platform.

The Basics of Google Business

Start with the name of your business, determine the categories your business falls under, where your service location is, what your hours (& special hours) are, your business phone #, add a link to your website, and add interesting business photos (Interior, Exterior, At Work, Your Team, & Identity).

Completely filling out the basics of your Google Business profile is very important and will help potential customers searching at various times of day, in different locations, and for various reasons to reach your business if it matches what they are expecting.

I’d recommend starting with the basics and you will be ahead of most of your competition. Once you have that complete, then you can focus on some of the more advanced features that Google offers.

Create a post on Google Business

Visiting the Posts link on the side of your Google Business will bring up a news-feed status update input box where you can post important updates. I have not posted anything yet, but as soon as I am done writing this on my blog, I will post a link. I clicked on the LEARN MORE link and got an overview of what I should be doing:

Posting through Google Business lets you publish your events, products, and services directly to Google Search and Maps. By creating posts, you can place your timely content in front of customers when they find your business listing on Google.

This is great that Google is now allowing business owners to post directly through this business portal. As long as the business owner has claimed their profile and linked everything together including Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Google Adwords, and other properties, they should all play very well together.

Understand Import Insights About Your Business

Where do your customers come from? Do they find your local listing on the right side of the page, do they find your organic listing? Perhaps you are paying for traffic by using Google Adwords? With the Insights tab in Google My Business you can discover how your customers search for your business. You will understand if they have viewed your information directly through Search of via Maps. Important business information including whether a customer visited your website, asked for directions, viewed your photos, and how many customers called are all available at a quick glance.

Manage Your Google Business Reviews

“Digital Word of Mouth” is one of the most important local search ranking factors and will likely influence whether a potential customer will contact you or your competition. Google makes it easy for business owners to discover what their customers have written about them.

Your customers will rate your business on a 1-5 star scale and they may also leave written comments. You will receive a notification when a customer writes a review and the Google My Business platform makes it very easy to respond.

Google reviews are increasingly important and it’s very important for you to incorporate a strategy that includes asking your customers for feedback and providing an easy means to do so.

Message with Your Customers

Directly communicate with potential customers. Providing real-time access to the business owner will likely allow the business owners who are able to respond quickly an advantage over those who haven’t activated this feature and must use traditional methods.

I’m excited to be able to manage my Google business information in one easy place. Google Business has evolved in the past few years into a platform for businesses to easily manage their vital business information and understand key performance indicators that will help them succeed.

December 16, 2022
The Power of Responding to Negative Reviews on Google Business: Why It’s Vital and How to Do It Right
Bryan Meadows, Owner of Bloomington Creative Solutions (this is a fake name) had been running his small business for 10 years, proudly providing services to his loyal customers. He often heard compliments from them, but one day he received a shock—someone had left a scathing one-star review on his Google Business page.

Bryan was understandably worried. How would this affect his business? How could he fix this? He decided to take a deep breath and figure out the best way to respond to this negative review. He went online to learn more about responding to reviews and soon realized that he had to take a proactive approach to address the customer’s issues. He crafted a response that addressed the customer’s concerns and apologized for the bad experience. After posting his response, he was relieved when the customer replied back and thanked him for taking the time to fix the issue.

Bryan’s swift response had a positive effect on his business: not only did it demonstrate to other potential customers that he was attentive to customer service, but he also received positive reviews from other customers that were impressed by his commitment to responding to each and every review.

How to Respond to Reviews with No Comments

Thank you for your rating! We appreciate you taking the time to provide feedback. If there’s anything we can do to try and improve your experience, please let us know.

3 reasons why it’s vital to respond to your reviews
1. To demonstrate your commitment to customer service and responsiveness.
2. To build credibility with potential customers and build trust with your current customers.
3. To give you a chance to fix any issues that customers have experienced.
Responding to negative reviews is a necessary strategy for businesses seeking to provide excellent customer service.

Not only does it demonstrate to potential customers your commitment to responsiveness, but it also provides a chance to identify and fix issues that customers have faced. It is essential to respond to reviews in a timely manner, show empathy to customers, and be professional in your responses. By following these steps and responding to negative reviews promptly and professionally, businesses can turn a negative experience into a positive one.
December 16, 2022
A Fresh New Design, Email, & Web Hosting Platform for IUStudentApts.com

We are proud to announce the launch of their newly redesigned website. In a few short weeks of work with David Martin, IUStudentApts.com has developed a website that offers a modern, intuitive, and streamlined user experience.

Newly Redesigned Website Powered by WordPress

The newly redesigned website is now powered by WordPress, a feature-rich and secure content management system, allowing for a seamless transition to the optimal online rental experience. The website’s intuitive user interface and optimized search functions make it easy to find the perfect rental for students at Indiana University. In addition, the website has been optimized for SEO, ensuring high rankings in search results and easy access to IUStudentApts.com’s rental offerings.

Enhanced Productivity with Email, Forms, & a Google Workspace For Their Domain Name

In addition to the website redesign, IUStudentApts.com is now using Google Workspace for its email accounts. This lets users securely access their emails from any device without needing to install any software.

Using Google Forms for their website contact forms allows users to provide their information quickly and securely. This ensures that all inquiries are answered in a timely manner and customers see a swift response from the IUStudentApts.com team.

IUStudentApts.com can enjoy a stress-free technology experience with advanced security, collaboration, and productivity features with Google Workspace.

Google Analytics to Track Website Performance

Google Analytics allows IUStudentApts.com to track and analyze website performance. This allows the team to better understand how customers are interacting with the site and make adjustments as needed for improved website usability. They can now see the metrics that matter most, such as page views, average time spent on site, and conversions.

Visit the IUStudentApts.com Website

December 11, 2022
3 Basic Steps to Optimizing Your Website for Search Engines
This article provides an overview of the three steps necessary for successful SEO: basic on-page optimization, basic link building, and basic social media marketing.

Learn about the basics of keyword research, creating effective titles and meta descriptions, building your profile on external websites, and implementing effective social media strategies. Find out how you can use the right tools to measure your efforts and tie them back to your website. Start getting more website traffic and higher-quality leads with these three essential steps.

SEO, when done correctly, takes a ton of effort and it is a very time-consuming process, but for this, you may need professional help from a search engine optimization company. A well structured, planned out website is going to be much more successful in the long run and will result in more relevant traffic and better quality leads. To begin, we need to focus on three basic activities related to your presence including Basic On-page Optimization, Basic Link Building, and Basic Social Media Marketing.

Basic On-Page Optimization for SEO Success

Basic On-Page optimization is the lowest hanging fruit and is the first place we start when trying to optimize our website for search engines. We begin with brainstorming and researching keywords that your target audience is using to locate your products and services. If a client is trying to rank locally for keywords, we make sure to include keywords (such as Bloomington) in the copy and structure of the HTML. Title tags are then written to evoke the highest emotional response using keywords that are relevant to your audience. High-quality meta descriptions that include one to two sentences about your business with calls to action are crafted. Your information on your page should be structured into an outline like form including headings, paragraphs, bulleted lists, etc. Images all have titles, descriptions, and when it makes sense, captions. These images should have ALT descriptions not only for search engines but for accessibility. David Martin Design can provide you with assistance on the appropriate layout.

Basic Link Building for Increased Rankings

After the overall structure has been built and your information is well organized, it’s time to build some links to your website. Basic Link Building is important as a link reference from another reputable source on the internet is worth a TON in the search engine ranking factors. It’s important to create quality content and submit press releases that link back to your website for newsworthy items. Building your business profile on websites like Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, Manta, Instagram, Google My Business (for better efficiency should be managed using tools only from this site), Snapchat, Yelp, Yahoo, Foursquare, Bing Local, and a plethora of other directory-based websites is vital to your search engine ranking. It’s important to not just claim your listing, but include your business hours, images of your product and location, and other important signals that show you are active in your business marketing. Your customers will reward you with high-quality reviews if your customer service aligns and your performance exceeds their expectations. Make it easy for them to write reviews by promoting your business on social media and in as many online places as possible.

Social Media Marketing: Optimizing Your Channels

Social Media Marketing is a challenge as most people don’t initially gravitate towards social networks to interact with businesses or to hear about your latest gadget or gizmo, usually, it takes help from companies to get people into using social media. It’s important for link-building to optimize your business information on social media profiles. It’s also important that a key person in your business is assigned to monitor these channels for customer communication. This responsibility most likely falls into the hands of most business owners and they install apps on their phones to keep in touch with their customers. It’s important to claim your profiles, optimize them, and use helpful tools to help manage your social media. Using the right tools, you can effectively measure your efforts on social media and tie them back to your website.

As you can see, it can get pretty complicated to market your business in today’s world. Start with these 3 basic steps:
1. On-Page Optimization of your website pages
2. Build High-Quality Links to your website and webpages
3. Basic social media marketing
and you will begin to see positive results in the search engines and reach highly qualified leads.
December 5, 2022
How to set up a secure spam-free email contact form using Google forms
Yesterday, I had a client tell me that he had a little over 115 submissions on his website contact form. He was very happy with the results and I asked him how many of those contact form submissions were spam?

His answer was, “None of them.”

Out of all of the submissions that he had received, none of them contained spam or junk information. They were all from potential customers asking questions about his services and products.

I was really happy to hear that the solution that we built together was so successful at eliminating spam and producing relevant leads for his business.

Here is how we did it:

To create a Google Form:
1. Sign in to your Google account and go to Google Forms.
2. Create a new form. Give it a good name. Set it up very simply with only the info you will need for your purposes. I usually use the fields: Your Name, Your Email, Your Phone, and Your Message.
3. Take a moment to adjust the appearance and upload a custom header.
4. Click on the hamburger 🍔 menu (the 3 dots make a bun and burger) and click add-ons.
  
  Choose the add on called Email Notifications for Google Forms. It allows for the entire form to be emailed and attached as a PDF. It’s great that you can store your Google form details in a spreadsheet and also attach them to your email as a PDF.
5. Follow the instructions in the help files on Amit Agarwal’s website and you will find that it’s very intuitive. If you’d like me to record a screencast or follow up with more information just let me know!
I hope this technology tip was helpful and if you end up building a new form because of it please let me know!
November 19, 2019