CDG Marketing & Web Design

Valerie Cudnik

Critical info about Google My Business service areas

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If you got an email from Google My Business about your “New service areas”  DO NOT IGNORE IT!

Let me say that again… Do Not Ignore the email from Google My Business.

It looks like this:

screenshot of GMB email about service areas

This is related to a huge change at GMB for local businesses. If you used a “miles from” radius on your listing, it needs to be addressed. Using a radius was a common method for local businesses to designate a service area, especially when the business solely sees clients at their location. Google is guessing what cities you serve (and I’m not sure what their methodology is). I’ve looked at the listings for my own business and a few others today and all of them needed updates. My own listing didn’t include Norfolk and Virginia Beach (where most of my clients are located!), but included some random cities in North Carolina.

So, TODAY, make time to look for that email from Google My Business and click the blue “Review my information” button. Add the missing cities and/or counties, and delete the ones that are mistakes.

If you don’t do it, you will not show up in the local results for the cities that aren’t on it.

DO NOT IGORE IT

Social Media Cheat Sheet for 2017

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Not my work product, but absolutely worth sharing! Louise Myers, over at Visual Social Media, has created a post, with the details about the image below, for the latest, greatest image sizes for all the big boys in social media: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram & YouTube.

Facebook alone has more than half a dozen sizes (the most popular are on the cheat sheet below). I’m personally working on a template for a few, because they don’t always scale well to different devices and I’m tired of text and headlines getting cut off when viewing on mobile devices. Makes me a little crazy.

I’m embedding the cheat sheet below:

Social Media Sizes Cheat Sheet
Learn more at LouiseM.com

Don’t Be Fooled By The Latest Gmail Phishing Attempt

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I first read about this bit of nastiness a couple weeks ago and shared it on Facebook.

They’ve taken it further, now giving people the option to log into any email account. Yikes!

I’ve made a video so you can see what to look for. Scary stuff. I’m experienced, had read about it and *still* almost fell for it.

Here’s the link to the original article written by the folks at WordFence: https://www.wordfence.com/blog/2017/01/gmail-phishing-data-uri/

YouTube SEO Cheat Sheet

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Using video as part of your marketing plan is a smart move these days. Even smarter is getting the most out of your efforts by applying basic SEO to your YouTube videos.

Like photos on your website, YouTube & Google have limited ability to understand what your video is about unless you tell them. You don’t want to be spammy about it, but you do want to be consistent. Follows is a simple infographic with the basics of YouTube SEO.

youtube cheat sheet infographic

PDF version of the YouTube Cheat Sheet

Security Alert – Don’t Get Scammed by (yet another) Internet Thief

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This is a newer scam, the first I’ve seen of it, though I found blog posts dating back a few months in a quick google search. If you get an ‘invoice’ like this DO NOT PAY IT.

I can’t believe companies like this are not immediately shut down. Fraud and misrepresentation happening all over the place here: from the appearance (it sure looks like an invoice!) to listing a non-existent account number.

What happens if you pay it? First, the company is going to submit an order to transfer your domain under their registration services. Then you’ll get an email asking you to approve it. Yikes! Letting a company that uses such unscrupulous methods have control over your domain is a nightmare waiting to happen.

The easiest way to stop getting mails like this (if you get one) is to opt for the private registration on your domain. Prices range from free to $15 or so a year, depending on your registrar, and it will block these scammers from getting hold of your information. I decided to leave this particular domain (cdgwebdesign.com) public because I’ve seen similar scams and figured it was better if I got them so I could warn clients.

Don’t be fooled!

dns services scam invoice

30 minutes to a better web presence for local businesses

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If you’re one of the small local businesses trying to move your marketing online, this article is for you. Perhaps you already have a website, a blog, and even a page on Facebook. If you do, great! You’re making progress. Depending on whether you are doing the work yourself or hiring it out, you may have missed the opportunity for some of the best free advertising you can get — listings in some of the larger online directories… the ones that count. (Being in a bazillion small meaningless link-farm directories doesn’t help and you want to stay away from those!)

The biggies:

If you’re a restaurant you should also be in:

  • Zomato (formerly Urban Spoon)

Start with your Google listing, then do Bing. Make sure you enter the exact same data for each of them! Entering the data into these sites will be a bit repetitive, but that’s okay. Different search engines serve up results from many different sources and you want to make sure you’re included in the ones that matter. This is a really basic list, there are lots of other good, solid directories, but folks just starting out should worry about these first.

Most of these sites also offer upgraded ‘paid’ listings or other features. For now, just stick with the basic free listing, you can always upgrade later. Ideally these listings will include a link back to a website, but if you don’t have a site, put up a page on Facebook and link to that.

When provided with the opportunity to enter a description about your company, it needs to be well-written sales copy that tells the potential customer what benefits you offer them. Why should they come to YOUR business and not the guy down the street?

Reporter vs Expert – Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck Reporting

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There are basically two types of bloggers in the world – reporters and experts – and some people perform both roles (usually the experts, it’s hard for reporters to become experts, but it’s easy for experts to report).

If you have ever taken an Internet marketing course or attended a seminar specifically for beginners, you have probably heard about the two different methodologies. Whenever the business model is based on content, and if you blog for money then the model is based on content, people are taught to either start as reporters, or if possible step up as experts. [Read more…] about Reporter vs Expert – Why Most Bloggers Are Stuck Reporting