“In the crowded world of SEO work, it is often daunting to decide on whom to trust.  Fortunately, I made the right decision and chose Wally.  Not only did my website improve in rankings… it did so in a few weeks.  And instead of just improving, it now dominates in most searches!  Wally is quick to respond, and generous with his explanations of what’s going on in the often nebulous SEO world.  

He went above and beyond and made a youtube video for my business!  This was something we didn’t talk about, and something I wasn’t expecting.  I can’t praise this business/service/individual enough!  If you want results backed by outstanding service, then you have found the right match.”

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What is website conversion rate optimization and why should you care about it? Your company website isn’t on the internet to look pretty and impress your friends. It’s there to convert your visitors into paying customers, period!

If it’s not doing that, then your website is failing you. It’s easy to get into looking at fancy color schemes and neat-o graphics and music and all of the other garbage that doesn’t really matter in a website, but it’s also important to know when to leave that stuff alone.

“But who cares about all of this, it’s not my problem”. I bet somebody somewhere has said that, and you don’t want to be one of them. People online aren’t doing what you think they are when they come to your website, assuming they can even find your website in the first place.

They are looking for information. If you are a dentist, they are looking to make an appointment or they want to see pictures or your work. If you are a plumber they want your phone number so they can call you in case they have an emergency. I guarantee they don’t care if your website is red, blue, white or pink.

Another thing is that people are in a major hurry these days. The attention span of the average person is about 2 seconds these days, and it’s not getting any longer. So you have to get them the information they want right away, or they will not stay on your website.

No offense, but your customers don’t care about you…they care about THEM!

So what is website conversion rate optimization? It is very simply making sure your website visitors are finding what they came for so they can make the appointment, call you up or request the information you want them to have and be gone. That’s all. We’re not looking to make friends here, we just want results and fast.

At Vexcom Solutions we will test, re-test and continually evaluate your website to make sure your customers are doing what you want them to do, and in the easiest and quickest way possible. As long as you aren’t doing this, you are losing customers each time you get a website visitor.

Stop losing customers and get your website optimized today by calling us at the number above. If you are still confused about what you can do to optimize your website for your visitors, watch this video below and leave us a comment.

What Is Website Conversion Optimization?

Service Areas: Reno NV, Sparks NV, Stead NV, Carson City NV, Dayton NV, Incline Village NV, South Lake Tahoe CA, North Lake Tahoe CA, Zephyr Cove NV, Truckee CA, 89431, 89433, 89439, 89501, 89502, 89503, 89506, 89508, 89509, 89511, 89512, 89519, 89521, 89523, 89701, 89702, 89703, 89705, 89706, 89450, 89451, 89451, 96150, 96151, 96152, 96154, 96155, 96156, 96157, 96158, 89448, 89403, 96160, 96161, 96162

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If you have been wondering how to set up Google authorship for your WordPress site, this is the only guide you need. I’m not just saying that either.

I have set up Google authorship on a few of my clients sites and I had a tough time the first few tries, and now I have the secrets!

When I set up mine (and was having trouble) I kept finding tutorials that were leaving something out, so this guide that you are reading will include every single step you need with images so that you can get your Google authorship set up properly.

Also, for any of you that have done your authorship status and still don’t see your picture in Google, keep reading to find out what’s likely wrong.

There are a few ways you can set up authorship on your WordPress site, but I found the easiest way was to use this free plugin to do it. They have some instructional videos, but to me their site seemed to not really explain the whole picture.

Of course I am assuming you can do basic things like upload a WordPress plugin and activate it and things of that nature, but I will try my best to explain every other thing you will need to do to get this working.

Step 1)

Get the AuthorSure FREE Plugin HERE: 

 Step 2)

Upload the Author Sure plugin to your WordPress site and activate it.

Step 3) 

Set up your Google + profile: This whole thing works based off your Google+ profile, so if you don’t have one you’ll need to create one first. If you need to set up your profile, you can go HERE to do that now.

Step 4)

Now you need to set up your author profile in WordPress with your Google+ profile information. You are going to get the URL of your personal Google+ profile and put it in your author settings like the images below.

Step 5)

Set up the AuthorSure plugin: Most of the fields on this plugin can be left as is. Again, on the tutorials on the plugin site the instructions weren’t very clear to me, so I just left things alone. The only thing you really need to do is put your Google + URL in and you are done with the plugin settings.

When you put in the URL to your Google + profile, try it without the /posts at the end. So for me it would be https://plus.google.com/u/0/107199699102662547419/ instead of https://plus.google.com/u/0/107199699102662547419/posts

 Step 6)

Find your author page on your WordPress site. If you have your permalinks set to a www.blogname.com/name-of-post type of format (/%postname%/ – or Pretty Permalinks) you can find your blog author page in this format. www.yourblogaddress.com/author/username with your username being your WordPress username of course.

Once you find your username, it’s time to plug that into your Google+ profile page, and you are almost done with all of this! So go to your Google + profile, and click on “Edit Profile” and scroll down to where you see “Contributor To“.

Just click on the area next to “Contributor To” and it will open up a box where you input your information.

After you fill out the form with the URL of your WordPress author page, save and click “Done Editing” at the top of your Google Plus page and you are done. It should look like the image below.

Final Step!! – Test It Out 

Now all you have to do is go to the Google Rich Snippet Testing Tool <——- and make sure you have everything right.

 If you followed these steps, you should now see your picture (the picture that is in your Google Plus personal profile) below in the testing tool. If not, you may have missed a step. Below I have some important troubleshooting tips that you can use if you are not able to see your picture.

1) Important!! Make sure your Google+ profile picture is a clear picture of your face! I kept noticing that some of my profiles just wouldn’t work, but others would show up in a matter of a few days in Google.

I researched a lot and it seemed that the whole thing was random, so I waited and waited. Google says to make sure there is a clear picture of your face, but they don’t say that it will not work if you don’t have it!

After finally noticing that I had a “cool” picture, and not one of my face and that ALL of the pictures that I saw on Goole were of faces, I tried something. After 2 months of waiting, my face appeared 2 days after replacing my Google Plus profile picture with the nice image you see above.

They don’t want a picture of your dog or your car on their search results, so if you want your picture to show up make sure it’s at least 250 X 250 pixels and that your face takes up a large portion of the picture.

2) When using the rich snippet tool, try the URL of one of your posts if you get an error. For a reason I haven’t researched, your image may not show for all links on your site (it seems random actually) so if you don’t see a result for www.yoursite.com then try www.yoursite.com/your-best-post and see if the rich snippet testing tool gives you something better.

If you’ve followed the steps above and you have a clear picture of your face (seriously, this is probably why most people have trouble) then wait a few days and hopefully you will see your picture in the search results for your site.

Some of your posts may have it appear, some may not and it will seem pretty random. Also, Google mentions a few times that it could take a while for it to appear, and do not guarantee that it will ever appear. But, if you follow this guide you won’t have a problem. I don’t see them not allowing authors to participate in their program when it’s what they seem to want.

And that is how you set up Google Authorship for your WordPress site. If you have any trouble or have any questions, please leave a comment below and enjoy seeing your face in Google!

Service Areas: Reno NV, Sparks NV, Stead NV, Carson City NV, Dayton NV, Incline Village NV, South Lake Tahoe CA, North Lake Tahoe CA, Zephyr Cove NV, Truckee CA, 89431, 89433, 89439, 89501, 89502, 89503, 89506, 89508, 89509, 89511, 89512, 89519, 89521, 89523, 89701, 89702, 89703, 89705, 89706, 89450, 89451, 89451, 96150, 96151, 96152, 96154, 96155, 96156, 96157, 96158, 89448, 89403, 96160, 96161, 96162

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If you think local video marketing is out of your league, think again. Creating and publishing videos online is easier than ever and I’ll show you how you can dominate your Reno local business competitors using video.

I was reading a great article in B2C about some myths that people believe about video marketing and wanted to write something for the Reno NV businesses out here that aren’t making enough videos.

The fact is, most businesses in the Reno area aren’t even doing any videos, and the ones that are doing them are doing them need a bit of help.

One of the biggest myths the B2C talks about in their article is about price.

Hiring a videographer can run upwards of $2,000-$10,000 or more for just one video.  Optimized marketing videos are designed to target your audience and don’t require production crews, green screens, or lighting professionals.  It’s important that before you spend thousands of dollars on just one video you understand and identify exactly what your end result is; aesthetics or new clientele?

 

What that’s saying is important. There is no need to hire the best video guy and get a bunch of fancy graphics to make a simple video. You are the expert in your field, so just give out some great information. People who find your video aren’t looking to be entertained, they just want to learn something new about whatever service or product you offer.

So give it to them! You can record your video with your iPhone if you like, the quality will be fine if you stand in some halfway good light and talk honestly about what you are offering, or trying to solve for people.

When you create a local video marketing campaign, you are trying to get your viewers to do something. Click to your website, or call you or whatever it is you want them to do. Most people will only watch 10 seconds of your video!

If you have a video with a 30 second jingle, then 20 seconds of fancy graphics…nobody is going to care what your message is. All you need is a simple video, telling people what you want to tell them so they can get their information fast and move on with their lives.

 If you can make a great video that truly helps people out in some way, you will be years ahead of most of your competition.

YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine, with 800 million (yes, million) unique visitors per month and 4 billion hours of video watched every month there are tons of opportunities for any local business to get their share of YouTube traffic for a local business. 

 It is not expensive to create a simple video…

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Part of what we do at Vexcom Solutions is to help local businesses in Reno NV with their small business online reputation in Reno NV. 

So when I notice a local company in Reno with bad reviews all over the internet, I figure those business owners must be out of their mind.

But instead, I’ve found a few times that they don’t seem to care very much. It’s as if they are not aware that there is a whole internet out there, and that people trust what’s on it a lot more than they ever have before.

I was reading a great article in USA Today about online reputations, and thought they made some great points on the subject.

While it may be tempting for small-business owners to shrug off a few lousy reviews, industry research shows benign neglect of a company’s online reputation could quickly hurt sales — especially given the new normal behavior of customers consulting their smartphones for even the smallest of purchases.

A Harvard business school research says that a one-star increase on Yelp can lead to a 9% increase in sales. Four out of five consumers, or 80%, reverse their purchase decisions based on negative online reviews, up from 67% in 2010, according to the 2011 Online Influence Trend Tracker survey by Cone.

 

So if you have just one or a few reviews, that is a big deal guys. If 8 out of 10 people may decide not to do business with you based on bad reviews that means you need to start paying attention to those online reviews, and now!

But I also know that a lot of business owners just don’t know what to do. There are tons of sites where angry customers (or angry ex-employees) can go and post a real, legitimate review based on their experience, or a fake review to get revenge on an enemy.

And as the quote above mentions, with so many people having a smart phone these days, it is very easy and quick to post a nasty review if a person thinks they have experienced some bad business.

You don’t have to be an expert on what to do to protect your online reputation. You don’t need to learn more skills, and most importantly you don’t have to stop running your daily operations to deal with this stuff.

But you do need to care. If your competitor decides to care about their online reputation and you shrug it off as something that you’ll “get to”, you will be the loser!

We live in a society where people want fast, and great service. Having no reviews online is about the same as having bad ones, and having bad ones is not good for business at all.

 Protecting, and being in charge of your small business online reputation is the best way you can control what people are seeing, and saying about your business online!

 
Service Areas: Reno NV, Sparks NV, Stead NV, Carson City NV, Dayton NV, Incline Village NV, South Lake Tahoe CA, North Lake Tahoe CA, Zephyr Cove NV, Truckee CA, 89431, 89433, 89439, 89501, 89502, 89503, 89506, 89508, 89509, 89511, 89512, 89519, 89521, 89523, 89701, 89702, 89703, 89705, 89706, 89450, 89451, 89451, 96150, 96151, 96152, 96154, 96155, 96156, 96157, 96158, 89448, 89403, 96160, 96161, 96162

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If you feel you have been wronged by a Reno business and are thinking of reporting them to the Reno BBB (Better Business Bureau) you will want to read this. Just like most other people, I always assumed that the BBB was an official government agency that was set up to help consumers like you and me.

So if we think we’ve been ripped off or treated unfair, we can just report a business to the Better Business Bureau and they will investigate it, right?

Not really.

So any company that has a “good” grade with the BBB must be a good company right, and any company that has lower grades must cheat their customers, right? You could look at it that way I guess. You could also look it as any company that pays the BBB will get a good grade, and any company who refuses to join them will get a lower “grade”.

Is The Better Business Bureau A Scam? Watch This Video!

Let’s face facts here. We live in a world where money can make anything change. And when you truly feel ripped off or cheated by a local business it can be enough to make you want to tell the world about your bad experience. But if you plan on reporting that to the BBB in Reno NV you should be prepared….

To realize that if the company in question has paid their dues, your complaint will not likely be taken too seriously. There are other ways to let your voice be heard in Reno though. There is NO REASON to drag a company’s reputation through the mud, but there are other, non-biased outlets for you to voice your legitimate concerns.

 
Service Areas: Reno NV, Sparks NV, Stead NV, Carson City NV, Dayton NV, Incline Village NV, South Lake Tahoe CA, North Lake Tahoe CA, Zephyr Cove NV, Truckee CA, 89431, 89433, 89439, 89501, 89502, 89503, 89506, 89508, 89509, 89511, 89512, 89519, 89521, 89523, 89701, 89702, 89703, 89705, 89706, 89450, 89451, 89451, 96150, 96151, 96152, 96154, 96155, 96156, 96157, 96158, 89448, 89403, 96160, 96161, 96162

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If you find all of the information on Reno small business marketing online confusing, you aren’t alone.

So we put together 3 easy tips for local business marketing online that you can use to get more exposure to your local business without going crazy learning a bunch of new stuff.

You probably get a hundred calls a day from people trying to sell you SEO services (search engine optimization = higher search engine rankings) but there are a lot of other things you need to be doing to get more customers from your local area.

Having good rankings if you aren’t doing these other things is not really going to help your brand and your business in the long term. Search engines are unpredictable at best, and in the blink of an eye your website ranking could be gone.

Because of this, it’s a good idea to have some other things going on to make sure this doesn’t happen in the first place as well as keep it from destroying your online presence.

3 Easy Tips For Local Business Marketing That Will Help You:

1) Claim Your Local Listings Online

There are a lot of places online where people can find your business listing, and you don’t want to just be in one of them. Sites like Yelp, Manta, Citysearch are local directory type sites where you can put in your whole company profile. Most sites like this have a place for reviews too, so keep these in mind for tip #2 in a minute.

In addition to local directory sites, you’ll want to claim your listing in the places like Bing Local and Google + Local (Also called Google Places, or Google Plus). These types of listings are really important because they display where you are actually located on the map in your city.

You want to look as official as you can, and you also want to be found online, so getting these listings filled out will be a huge benefit to your online visibility.

2) Check Your Reviews Online

 Your online reputation is very important. If you don’t keep up on it, you won’t know what people are saying about you. And if you get some jerk who is spewing hate all around the internet over some bad service you may have given, you can lose a lot of customers.

Reputation marketing is still fairly new and was born out of necessity. You need to have a plan of action to take care of not only unsatisfied customers that may need a little bit of extra attention, but you want to keep tabs on what your beloved customers are saying about you.

Online reviews have major influence on your future customers, so this is not something you want to ignore for very long!

3) Optimize Your Website For Mobile Devices

A lot of local business owners think a mobile optimized website is a gimmick or unnecessary. If you agree, then you’ll want to read this.

Source:

Having a mobile optimized website is very important for local business to survive. The days where people grabbed the phone book and sifted through 50 pages to find a service or a product they need are gone.

People want satisfaction right now, and I can only assume the attention span is getting shorter each day.

There’s not any need to worry though. Doing these things is really simple to do, and it will help you out by giving you the best exposure possible online. Customers want to be taken care of no matter where they are these days.

That means whether they are in your store, or on your website they are expecting to get great service or they will be looking for your competitor so that they can get their daily fix of instant gratification.

 
Service Areas: Reno NV, Sparks NV, Stead NV, Carson City NV, Dayton NV, Incline Village NV, South Lake Tahoe CA, North Lake Tahoe CA, Zephyr Cove NV, Truckee CA, 89431, 89433, 89439, 89501, 89502, 89503, 89506, 89508, 89509, 89511, 89512, 89519, 89521, 89523, 89701, 89702, 89703, 89705, 89706, 89450, 89451, 89451, 96150, 96151, 96152, 96154, 96155, 96156, 96157, 96158, 89448, 89403, 96160, 96161, 96162

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How can reputation marketing in Reno NV help your business? Did you know that 61% of people rely on user reviews before making a purchase?

And if they find negative reviews from angry customers, they won’t be doing any business with you anytime soon. But if the idea of your online reputation is new to you, let’s take a look at some facts that will help you out a bit.

Online review sites are becoming more popular, and easier to use. In a matter of minutes a happy (or angry) customer can log into any one of these sites and spread the word about how much they love (or hate) your service!

Consumer Review Statistics:

 People Online Are BRUTAL!!

gas city pizza hut sucks.. just waited over 15 min in the drive thru for our pizzas!!! >:/

— Jennie Hehe (@jenhehe08) October 19, 2012

Imagine waiting 15 whole minutes for a pizza…I’d be angry too.

The point is, this could be your business anyone is talking about at any time. Finding that tweet took me all of 3 seconds, so I guarantee any of your customers can find it too. Simply put, you have to make sure your future customers see all of your 5-Star, glowing reviews.

Bad reviews are going to happen from time to time, there is nothing you can do about that.

But if you address them in the right way and concentrate on getting 100% honest reviews from your happy customers you will drown out those random angry people that live to make other’s lives miserable.

All it takes is a proper plan, and someone who can take care of your reputation marketing in Reno NV so that you can concentrate on more important parts of your business…like taking care of your customers. 

 Learn More About Online Reputation Marketing: Watch This Video Below

Remember. You are only 1 person away from a bad review! Don’t let negative reviews hold your business back any longer. Call us today and let us help you get your online reputation back on track.

 
Service Areas: Reno NV, Sparks NV, Stead NV, Carson City NV, Dayton NV, Incline Village NV, South Lake Tahoe CA, North Lake Tahoe CA, Zephyr Cove NV, Truckee CA, 89431, 89433, 89439, 89501, 89502, 89503, 89506, 89508, 89509, 89511, 89512, 89519, 89521, 89523, 89701, 89702, 89703, 89705, 89706, 89450, 89451, 89451, 96150, 96151, 96152, 96154, 96155, 96156, 96157, 96158, 89448, 89403, 96160, 96161, 96162

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Did you know that 74% of all internet searchers use the internet to look for products or services in their local area? If you are new to local business internet marketing in Reno NV keep reading to find out how you can use the internet to get the attention of 3/4 of the internet.

Doing business in Reno or any city for that matter is changing fast. The days where you would pick up a phone book and flip through the alphabet to find a business that offered a service that you needed are almost totally gone.

Now people are “checking in” online, and doing research before they do business, and that means that as a local business owner you need to have an internet marketing plan so you don’t lose these potential customers.

 What Is Internet Marketing?

I have lost count of how many business owners in Reno I’ve talked to that don’t do any internet marketing. Many don’t even have a website, or care to have one and some just don’t get what the big deal is. And while I understand not wanting more change in the world, I don’t think this internet thing is going away.

But just having a website up and running isn’t really enough either. When a person are searching online for a product, and they land on a website they are in a hurry. No matter what you may have heard, they don’t want to look at a fancy animation that takes a minute to load on the page.

They also don’t want to search around for what they are looking for either. If you operate a deli in town, then have a quick and easy way for your customers to find 2 things.

 That’s it! If you can get people that information, or get them on track to find it very fast, they will thank you for it by doing business with you. 

Simple Call-To-Action

All you are trying to do is give people exactly what they want. And all they want is simple information that they can use to make a simple decision…whether or not to do business with you. If they have to look on your website for more than about 5 seconds, they will leave your site, and find one that gives them what they want without any hassle.

Aside from making sure your online reputation is up to par, you’ll be all set to capture some of those 74% of people who are searching online right this minute for something that you may offer. This is why local business internet marketing in Reno NV is so important for any biz in the area that wants to stay competitive online.

The only question is…Will they buy your services?

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If you’re looking for Reno SEO (search engine optimization) you found the right place. In this day and age, owning a business and not having a website is not really the best idea.

Having a website and not optimizing it for search engines such as Google, Yahoo & MSN is a waste of your time. It’s estimated that 85% of people are looking to the internet to search for local business.

That means nobody is looking in the Yellow Pages for their needs anymore.

Reno SEO

The fact is that if your local business website isn’t ranking in the search engines, you are missing out on a ton of money and business. You already know that people have ditched the phone book and are searching for solutions to their problems on the internet.

If your website isn’t listed as a result for whatever they are searching for, then your competitor is. That very simply means that your competitor is taking your business from you just by being up to date with the newer trends.

But you don’t need to be left out in the cold. You can get ranked high in the search engines and get a piece of the biggest pie in existence…the internet!

Plain and simple, if you have a business in Reno & SEO is not part of your game plan, then you are really missing the boat. Contact us today to find out how you can start competing for the customers that are already out there searching for what you have.

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