Being a San Francisco SEO consultant is in many ways similar to being a psychologist. In both cases you have to “get to know” your client before you can work with him or her. Continue reading
Tag : Local SEO
MMM: San Francisco Mobile & Local SEO
Everything these days is mobile, mobile, mobile! Walk into any cafe in San Francisco, whether it’s a trendy artisan cafe like Four Barrel Coffee on Valencia, or a national chain like the Starbucks that literally are a stone’s throw from each other in downtown San Francisco or near the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and it’s people people people on their mobile mobile mobile phones. Everything has “gone mobile.” Continue reading
How to Get Reviews on Yelp, Easily!
As a teacher and trainer in Social Media Marketing, one of the most common questions I get is, “Jason, I have a small business and we depend on Yelp… but how do we get reviews?” My easy answer is: ask. Simply asking happy customers, “Hey, could you do me a favor… please write us an honest review on Yelp,” is the No. 1, easiest way to get reviews. You’ll ask ten customers to get one review, but over time, you’ll see a steady increase in reviews on Yelp (or Google+).
Local SEO / Social Media – Getting Reviews on Yelp
But there’s another easy way to get reviews on Yelp, easily: provide really horrible, rude service after completely screwing up a customer order. Ha, ha, ha. I am not kidding, however. In today’s environment, any customer can write a review of your local business with the click of a button. This is especially true in San Francisco, the home town of Yelp, but it is true anywhere.
For example… Recently, we just got home from our annual summer road trip from the San Francisco Bay Area to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Plano, Texas, and back. In Plano, Texas, we have a family tradition of going to Bone Daddy’s BBQ restaurant in Plano. This year, however, the service was beyond terrible: our food came out late, the waitress was scruffy to be polite, and the manager was not very much better. So, what did I do? Go onto Yelp and re-write my “good” review into a “bad review.” You can read my review of Bone Daddy’s Plano Texas to see what I’m talking about.
Next, the Karma of the universe intervened. We were in Tehachapi, California, on our way back, and stopped by McDonald’s. (Not a lot of food options on highway 58). McDonald’s fouled up our order, and my wife called in to complain. I expected the worst: sorry, Charlie, sort of attitude. But instead, they comped us our food, refilled our order, and were incredibly nice about the whole thing. Score #1 for McDonald’s. So I wrote a positive review of McDonald’s… and was amazed at how their service put Bond Daddy’s to shame.
Morals of the Story: Getting Reviews on Yelp
Moral of the story for local reviews. #1 – ask for reviews from happy customers. #2 – if you have a mix-up, fix it for the customer and go beyond the call of duty… to prevent a) a bad review, and b) possibly get a good review. #3 – stop by McDonald’s in Tehachapi, California, for incredible service at the place you’ll least expect it!
Berkeley – the Athens of the West – and SEO Training Thoughts
Berkeley, oh Berkeley. Recently, I conducted an SEO Workshop for a group of HVAC (Heating and Air Conditioning) companies in Napa, California. We went through the basics of SEO – why your keywords matter, page tags, link building, and even the importance of Google Local and Yelp for succeeding at local SEO.
SEO Workshop – the Basics
Everything, they say is local. Fortunately, everyone who took the workshop seemed to get something out of it. I always try to make my workshops as practical as possible – to give the participants concrete “todos” to take home, and implement. I always walked away from so many trade show keynote addresses at the major SEO shows like ClickZ, Search Engine Strategies, or PubCon with a GEE WOW feeling and then when I got home GEE NOTHING… nothing concrete I could actually implement. And yet success at SEO is really not just about knowledge – it’s also about implementation.
So back to Berkeley. I have my Ph.D. from Berkeley, and consider it one of my favorite places on Earth. The town is full of motivated, intelligent, incredible people and the “spirit” of the University of California is one of learning before pomp and circumstance, of knowledge before social standing, of openness and honesty. I graduated from Harvard, but I love Berkeley.
Berkeley is very much about great intellect, and practical knowledge. About learning, and about doing. It’s not enough to understand the world… one must change it. That’s the Berkeley spirit, and something I take with me towards my chosen occupation of teaching people search engine optimization and social media marketing.
And then…
Then – oh then – while I was sitting in my car at a stop light, I was hit by a drug-induced motorcycle rider – slam, bam, thank you mam. Long story short: hit and run. Back to reality, back to the real world – which like SEO – can be very very rough and tumble.
San Francisco SEO Audit and Local SEO Services Announced by Jason McDonald
San Francisco, California – March 31, 2014
San Francisco, CA – March 31, 2014 – Jason McDonald (https://www.jasonmcdonald.org), a top San Francisco SEO expert, is proud to announce new local audit services on search engine optimization for local San Francisco businesses. With the advent of not only SEO but social media sites such as Yelp and Google+ Local, more and more San Francisco businesses are in need of local SEO services.
“The days of the Yellow Pages are gone,” explained Dr. McDonald. “Recently in my classes on Search Engine Optimization and social media marketing in San Francisco, I have been deluged with local businesses asking for audit services to assist with Yelp and Google+ Local (Google Places) optimization.”
To contact Jason McDonald for a no cost, no obligation phone consultation on local SEO for San Francisco businesses please visit
https://www.jasonmcdonald.org/
LOCAL SEO FOR SAN FRANCISCO BUSINESSES
Many San Francisco businesses from restaurants to bars to chiropractors to dentists to lawyers rely on inbound marketing from sites such as Yelp or Google+ Local. Customers, especially in a tech-savvy city like San Francisco, often turn first to a Google or Yelp search to find the ‘best’ chiropractor or the ‘best’ Chinese restaurant in the Castro district. Businesses need SEO audit services to review their current search engine optimization and the social media marketing efforts that can boost their brand image, increase their positive reviews, and enhance their visibility across these web sites.
Efforts to increase local SEO must be done in a positive manner, in accordance with industry best practices for social media marketing. The new services by Jason McDonald include a preliminary audit of the company’s standing and then step-by-step consulting to improve the standing of a business on local SEO sites.
ABOUT JASON MCDONALD – SEO / SOCIAL MEDIA CONSULTANT
Dr. Jason McDonald is a recognized SEO and Social Media expert consultant in based in the San Francisco Bay Area / Silicon Valley. Dr. McDonald received his Ph.D. from the University of California in 1992, and has worked at many hi-tech start up’s in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, Dr. McDonald is Senior Editor at eg3.com, a web portal and email service covering hi-tech embedded systems on the Internet, founded in 1994. Recently, Dr. McDonald has begun teaching marketing, market research and Internet marketing at Bay Area institutions such as AcademyX and DeVry University.
Dr. McDonald can be found on the Internet at https://www.jasonmcdonald.org, a website focused on search engine marketing, SEO, and other Internet marketing issues with in-depth free information on SEO, Page Tags, Google Analytics, Metrics, Link building, Free SEO Tools and more. He can also be contacted by telephone at +1-702-879-4771 or email, jasonmcdonald.blog@gmail.com.