Paul VanWagoner from ESPN Radio in Blacksburg, VA provides some great tips about how to get the most out of radio adverting.  In my interview with Paul, we discuss what types of businesses should be advertising on the radio, what common mistakes businesses make in their radio ads, and what strategies they should use for successful radio advertising campaigns.

If you’re one of the many local business owners who is frustrated or confused about what’s going on with your Google My Business page (which used to be your Google+ page, which used to be Google places, which is kinda sorta the same thing as your Google Maps listing but not really…), I feel your pain.

I deal with this stuff every day; helping businesses set up and optimize their Google My Business pages is part of my job, and even I get confused sometimes.  In my opinion, Google has really made a mess of this and has done a terrible job explaining to local business owners what they need to do to properly set up their page.

In an attempt to clear up some of the confusion about Google My Business and help you take advantage of the opportunity it presents, in this week’s podcast episode I explain how to optimize your Google My Business page and how to leverage it to become the top-rated provider in your local area.

Today's episode features another small business marketing case study, this time with a local accountant.

I think you'll enjoy this case study, because prior to working with me the accountant was in a situation very common for local small business owners.  He was heavily invested in "traditional" marketing tactics like the Yellow Pages and sponsoring local events, while at the same time not having much of an online presence.  In my interview with the CPA, we discuss how our project changed that and what results he is seeing from our work. 

As we make our way slowly and painfully through the 2016 presidential campaign season, a lot of attention has been paid by the media on how the top candidates are running their campaigns.  Essentially, a presidential campaign is a small business.  It has employees, it needs to generate income, and--above all--it needs to market itself.  In fact, in the political world "campaigning" is basically another word for marketing.

With that in mind, small business owners can learn some valuable lessons from the presidential campaigns--which, in some cases, are more about what not to do than what to do.  This is especially true when it comes to Donald Trump's campaign, which has been in the news recently due to the fact that he just fired his campaign manager and is lagging far behind rival Hillary Clinton when it comes to fundraising. 

There are many reasons that Trump's campaign is struggling that have nothing to do with marketing, but there is one area where he is dropping the ball and making the same mistake that many small business owners do (ironic, given the fact that he is trying to brand himself as a great businessman)--and that is not using email marketing properly or even at all.  Listen to today's episode to find out what he did wrong and how you can avoid the same mistakes.

Recently, Google took what is called a "manual action" against my website due to the fact that they erroneously believed that I was engaging in "link schemes"--i.e., selling links on my site for the purpose of helping other sites increase their domain authority.  I actually wasn't doing anything wrong, but the process of getting the issue sorted out and getting back on Google's good side was very eye-opening and educational for me.

If nothing else, the experience hit home the fact that when Google decides you are doing something wrong, you are guilty until proven innocent.  This very topic is actually the subject of a lawsuit against Google making its way through the courts right now--more on that below. 

Another thing I learned in the process of researching how to resolve this manual action was that apparently I wasn't the only one dealing with this issue right now--there appears to be some sort of a crackdown going on regarding outbound links, as this article in The SEM Post points out. 

Because link-building is such a huge part of SEO, and because Google's actions both against me and in the two examples sited above really throw into question what is and isn't a "legitimate" link as far as Google is concerned, I thought this was an important topic to cover on my podcast.

If you've owned a business for more than a week, you've probably started getting them.  I'm talking about those robo-calls that begin with a message of "This is so-and-so, your local Google specialist..." or something to that effect.  The message then goes on to say some variation of the following:

• There is a problem with your Google listings.
• Your business is not appearing in Google search results.
• There are negative reviews about your business.
• There is a problem with your Google+ page.

Those are the messages I've heard personally (yes, I get these calls too), but I'm sure there are other variations.  The bottom line here is that these calls are a scam.  There may or may not be a problem with your local directory listings, your business may or may not have negative reviews online, and your business may or may not be appearing at the top of search results for keywords related to your industry.  However, there is one thing I can guarantee: the reason you are getting the robo-calls has nothing to do with any of the above.

Listen to this episode to learn what is actually going on.