Last week when I posted about online reviews being used as a marketing strategy, I didn’t grasp that my post would push one of our customers to take action.

Shortly after the blog post hit, which our client Sparkling Clean Window Washing subscribes to via email,  the owner headed off to one of our local pages and left us a great review.  It turns out that Ryan has been nudging clients to use online reviews for his business as well and in loving what Five did for his website wanted to shout out his happiness to others.  Thanks Ryan!

This also shows a nice little process that took place from blogging and interacting with our customers:

1.  Five blogs about online reviews, local search and the positive effect they can have on creating new business.

2.  A client is a blog reader / subscriber and reads this post.

3.  The client realizes they should give a review to help other users looking for a great Minnesota web design firm!

So even thought I didn’t consider this to be one of the outcomes of my post, it shows what business blogging can produce. It can produce reader action and further marketing for us.

It shouldn’t be news to you that you need to write web content that engages and informs your website user / visitor first and foremost and attracts the love of the search engines second. It can be very easy to accomplish both user friendly content and search engine friendly content when you consider that visitors to your website these days are more like the search engines than ever.

1. Be basic and straight forward. Users appreciate less marketing jargon and more answers on today’s Internet.

2. Use a good mix of your main keyword term, but also mix in related or secondary keyword terms. Try to use both the industry or professional terms (if applicable) but also consider how the general public might understand your product or service.

3. Apply these basic elements to your page header, beginning paragraph, supporting information or bullet points.

You want an example? Ok.

Here is just a simple example of what I might write for a steakhouse in downtown Minneapolis. Lets consider that their downtown location and the fact that they are a premier steakhouse are the big keyword factors.

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page header (H1):
Award Winning Downtown Minneapolis Steakhouse

intro paragraph: Peter’s Steak Palace is a downtown Minneapolis steakhouse and offers the best steak and food for your Minneapolis dining experience. With prime rib, filet mignon, porterhouse and our famous Pete Cut Steak, you can enjoy our award winning restaurant atmosphere and menu of steaks, salads and more.

supporting (h2): Visit Our Minneapolis Restaurant

• View our steak and menu items (list items)
• Make reservations online or call
• View our dress code and other helpful info
• View a map of our downtown location

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As you can see from above I would also recommend finding a way to present your top keyword terms in anchor text to supporting pages. The “downtown Minneapois steakhouse” link can go to the “about page” and the other link to the menu page. With a bit more content, a photo or two correctly tagged and page meta data completed, you have a very well optimized page for the search engines that also helps the user (the main goal!). Mix in a few links pointing to the site and you’ve got a good SEO process starting to work.

Take a look at your content, is it basic enough? Does it clearly address what you do or offer? Where? How? If not, you would benefit from giving it a basic tweak or two that will benefit both your website visitors and search engines.

Yesterday’s USA Today had a feature story about the effect of online reviews for businesses leading to acquiring new clients. The focus of the article was a Los Angeles area chiropractor who actively encourages clients to write reviews on Google, Yelp, Yahoo and other local sites that allow reviews. His business has increased from people finding the reviews and choosing his practice over the others in the local search results.

I think having a few reviews for Five would be of help to local businesses seeking our web expertise. (note to self)

Last year when traveling to San Francisco for the first time I read a lot of online reviews on Yelp to find a few fun places to dine. It was extremely useful and I just sent a few links to a friend today who is headed out there Friday (lucky guy). The ability to get a wide range of opinions and filter through that information to make my own decision is a great thing. Obviously not every comment or opinion will be glowing or even positive, but with more than a handful of reviews you can make your own deductions from the added value of reviews.

For me, that’s what it is all about. Having a few other angles to consider when making a decision. I have used online reviews not only for my SF trip, but for many hotel reservations, dinner choices and electronics purchases in the last few years.

I hope that attention like the USA Today article and other avenues lead to more user content/feedback on small businesses, not just products or hotels. Of course we will see some “review spam”, just as we see with every other Internet marketing, but the big picture is very solid.

Remember though, to even have a shot at getting reviewed you must be correctly listed in the local directories of these sites. Paul Jahn of LocalMN has a great post on local search basics you should check out if this is all new to you and your business. You should also do a search on your business in the main ones, add yourself or correct info as needed. Here are the links below:

• Google Maps/Local (you need a Google account)
• Yahoo Local (you need a Yahoo account/email)
• Yelp (you need a business account)

Believe me, this small bit of effort is worth it, local search is gaining more power and search real estate every day.

Video, video ,video … it’s a hot topic.  But how can your small business use Internet video?

A company overview video is a great way to bring more to the table on explaining and showing who you are, what you do and how you do it.  Your website visitors are engaged with visual and audio instead of just reading text and viewing photos/graphics.  Here are just a few of the basic items you can cover and include for your own company overview video:

• Show the personality of your company, the faces of the talent inside your walls
• Talk to the levels and capabilities you offer
• Outline the  uniqueness of your company
• Showcase specific skills or past projects
• Outline the process of working with your company

These are just a few ideas.  This video can also be used offline as well for trade shows, exhibits, sales DVD’s and more.  You can also leverage you video and optimize it for the search engines.

Below are some screenshots from our video shoot in our offices last week as we are currently in production of our own company overview video.  We aim to show how we are a fantastic Minnesota web design firm that can bring creativity and function to any business website.  Stay tuned as we hope to launch the finished product in the coming weeks.

Rand over at SEOMoz put out his Whiteboard Friday video this week on Business Blogging and offered up 5 tips if you are considering blogging for business, especially to help your SEO efforts. Rand’s weekly videos offer great SEO tutorials and education and I was excited when I saw it ventured into blogging and SEO this week.

Here is the video:

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday-Blogging for Higher Rankings from Scott Willoughby on Vimeo.

In summary, here are the five tips Rand pointed out.

1. Utilize your blog as a directory structure (example: domain.com/blog ) instead of a subdomain (blog.domain.com) as it is better for your link juice and link building.

2. Keep your top level links. Keep your main navigation in place on your blog to help pass link juice to your main sections and also give users easy access to them. This is a good reason to use a custom designed blog template instead of a free one.

3. Sell subtly and only when relevant. I have covered this before, but don’t use your blog and posts to scream “buy my product now!”.

4. Spread out your good content. Rand suggests having additional valuable content in your regular site structure, not just in blog posts. The idea here is to also create website content like an articles section, FAQ section, tutorial section or video library. This is something I need to do a better job of and I have an idea now too.

5. Linkbait and use of keywords. If you’re going to write a post with the intent of drawing link attention, then make sure you have your keywords covered in the post and also link (when relevant) to the applicable sections of your website. Share the link love with your website.

These are great tips and advice for any business blogger or those considering it. These are gaged to helping with SEO from your blog and there are further benefits to blogging besides SEO too. Maybe it’s time for you to start blogging?