Guest Post:  Adam Steele is the CEO at Nightlite Media. His expertise includes SEO, social media and email marketing. This is Part 3 of Google Local Results Changed the Game.

In my last two posts, I explained the 5 W’s of Google Places (who, what, when, where & why), as well as how to go about optimizing your own Google Places page. A year ago, this information would have been enough to earn you a first page ranking, and in some smaller niches and/or cities, this is still the case. HOWEVER, if you want to play with the big boys, and take your Google Places optimization to the next level, then your next step is to learn off page ranking factors.

Off page ranking factors covers a huge scope of potential topics. First, it is important to understand the difference between off page and on page factors. When it comes to Google Places optimization, on page factors include your website and Google Places page. For simplicity, we have only covered your Google Places page, which was the topic of my last post. Off page factors include major link building. That is, building links on other sites, and having them link to your website. In this article, we are going to focus on one type of links: citations.

Citations are occurrences of your business information online. In fact, it doesn’t matter where online it appears, as long as the citation includes your business name, address and phone number (NAP). A common misconception is that a citation is a profile on a local business directory such as Yelp, Superpages, Insiderpages, Judysbook or Citysearch. While these are excellent sources for citations there are not citations themselves. They are local business directories.

Local business directories are certainly the most common place to create citations for a lot of reasons including: it is free, easy, authoritative, of  high quality, traffic-rich etc. For all these reasons, we will focus on these directories and go over what you need to know about them.

Firstly, yes, they are FREE – well mostly. Many of these directories offer everyone a free business profile, which allows them to add their business information, pictures, videos, link to site etc. Not a bad deal! However, these directories stay in business because they hope to sell you extra incentives, including advertising, better ranking on the site and a multitude of other products and services. Do not be surprised if you receive a call or several email solicitations immediately after signup. It is a necessary evil I am afraid. For those of you who want to entertain these offers, I suggest you tread very carefully. Most aren’t worth their weight.

Creating profiles on local business directories is dead easy, but you shouldn’t take the easy, quick route. Although I haven’t proved this yet, it is my feeling that a more complete profile will lend more authority. That is, Google treats a bare bones profile differently than one that has been carefully completed. This may not be the case right now, but I have no doubt that in future this will be the case. So go ahead, add pictures, videos, great content, etc. Another good reason to create these carefully is accuracy. Any inaccuracies in your business name, address or phone number will hurt your ability to improve your Google Places rank.

Authority and quality fall in the same boat. When I say authority I am usually referring to the credibility that Google has assigned to a website, or in this case the local business directory. All the more popular directories have lots of authority, which is in part, passed off to your business when Google finds your business information on it. For all intents and purposes, it is considered a ‘vote of confidence.’ By this, I mean that a link or citation from these directories will have a positive effect on your rankings. Google has deemed them quality websites.

If a local business directory has all the before mentioned characteristics then it also will be traffic rich. What does this mean to you? Well, many of these sites attract consumers looking for local
businesses. If consumers are able to find you, and in a good light (thanks to your robust profile), you may score yourself some extra business. In fact, I find that my clients tend to receive 3-5% of their traffic from these directories. If their monthly traffic is 1000 visits, 30-50 extra visits is nothing to scoff at.

Here is a small list of the more popular local business directories:

These are just some great directories you can submit your business to. There are literally THOUSANDS. Per usual, we have a reward for your readership. We want to send you a list of 100 of the best local business directories online. This is the list that we submit our clients to and one that we have carefully cultivated over the last 18 months. Send me an email adam.steele@nightlitemedia.com and I will quickly send it your way.

Guest Post:  Adam Steele is the CEO at Nightlite Media. His expertise includes SEO, social media and email marketing. This is Part 2 of Google Local Results Changed the Game.

Overview

97% of consumers search for local businesses online. You definitely want to be there when they’re looking for you with Google Places for business.

Google wants to show its users the most relevant, up-to-date, quality information (including companies) possible. This is its mission and just one reason it is the biggest. As such, when it comes to optimizing your Google Places page, you should keep this in mind.

The following are some simple tips and guidelines to a successful Google Places page optimization. The quick tweaks will improve your chances of securing better positions for your business. Please keep in mind that Google Places is constantly changing, and what works at the time of this checklist may change dramatically in 30 days. Saying that, we have tried to keep to the things that have remained a constant for some time now.

Initial Process

• Select the area/city you wish to target
• Keyword Search: https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal. Put in a word that you “think” the average person would type in Google when looking for a business in your city. (NOT the name of a business, but a word or phrase.) Example: ‘Dallas electrician’. Google will suggest other popular words below that term. View the ones that are popular and record them. Make sure you deselect broad and select exact (on the left) and focus your attention on local volume/searches, not global.
• Identify keywords you would like to dominate in your local town/city and search them for yourself. Not all keywords will trigger Google Places. So, you need to make sure the ones you go forward with bring up Google Places results when you search for them.
• Record on a piece of paper the top 5 -10 keywords and rank them in order of priority (keep on hand).

Submission

• Set up a Gmail account if you don’t have one already here.
• Search for your company to see if an existing Google Places page is already setup. Go to http://maps.google.com and put in your phone number with area code to see what comes up. Try more than one phone number if you have more than one for your business.
• If after you check, you DO have a page, then you will simply want to “Edit Page” if there is anything you want to change (check below to see if your current Google Places page has the appropriate content listed below.) If you do NOT have a page after entering your phone numbers, then you will want to create one!

Creating A Google Places Page

• After you have created a Google account, you will want to set up your Page. Answer every question (Leave nothing undone – Google views this as “incomplete”.)
• Company Name (Without keywords) DO NOT get fancy here. Stuffing your title with keywords is just going to get you in trouble. In the past, stuffing the title offered an SEO advantage, but now it is both risky and unnecessary. Simply put your business name here as it is recognized everywhere else.
• Street Address: Your business address as it occurs everywhere else online and offline. Consistency and accuracy are KEY. If your business has existed for some time, try and search your own address. Look for the most popular address for yourself and go with that one if it’s applicable–otherwise update it. You would be wise to go back and adjust all those addresses that are different than what you use in your Google Places page. NOTE: If later you decide to make any changes to your address, Google will very likely request to send you a post card before updating.
• City/Town: Self Explanatory. NOTE: This is the city that you will have the best chance of ranking in for your keywords.
• Main phone: Same principle as your street address. Take a look how your phone number appears already online. Is it in (xxx) or xxx? You want it to appear in Google Places the same way it does elsewhere online.
• Website: Use http://www. You want it to be hyperlinked.
• Description: I would typically suggest using the same one that occurs in your site’s meta data (description tag) for consistency. Keyword rich is fine, but don’t make it spammy. Also, consider your click through rate (CTR). Searchers will see this, and decide whether they want to click or not so don’t be afraid to be a bit ‘salesy.’
• Category: Few things to know here. Stay the heck away from city modifiers. That is, your category should be ‘electrician’, NOT ‘Dallas electrician.’ Doing the latter will get you in trouble. Google gives you 4 custom categories and one pre-defined. Make good use of them and align them with the keywords you want to rank for. Similar to the Company/Organization field, categories are being screened and the same sensitive keywords apply. Custom categories don’t really have to be too coherent. If you have a lot of keywords you are targeting, try and combine them with other keywords, but again, not too spammy.
• Service Area and Location Settings: Pretty self explanatory. It is commonly used if you are using an address outside of the city/cities that you want to rank in OR you want to rank in all your surrounding cities. Use this function to define your service area(s). NOTE: You aren’t going to rank in San Fran, if your address is in Austin. Obvious, I hope. However, if your address is in the suburb of San Fran and you want to rank in San Fran and its surrounding suburbs is doable. Being outside of the city you want to rank in puts you at a disadvantage. If you are trying to rank for a competitive keyword and you are not located in the city you want to rank in, you could be hooped.
• Hours & Payment: Just make sure this is consistent with everything else that is published online.
• Photos: Yes, you should add photos. Photos uploaded should be saved as ‘cityname-state-keyword’ and then uploaded. Google also gives you the option to “Add a photo from the web.” I like to add a picture from the website. This creates a connection between your Google Places page and your website. This is a good thing.
• Videos: Yes, you should add video preferably of a testimonial like a customer (not you). These can be YouTube videos. Remember to make sure your files are named after a keyword.

Verification: More than likely Google will want to send a post card. The post card typically takes 5-8 business days to arrive. When it arrives, log back into your Google Places dashboard and enter a PIN code to verify and activate your listing.

Similar to my last post, there is a perk for reading. This articles perk is 3 months of FREE Google Places page optimization…a $300 value!! To enter the draw, send your answer to the following question to adam.steele@nightlitemedia.com. Also, if you like some of the tips above, follow me on twitter for more at http://twitter.com/nightlitemedia.

Question: In the categories section of your Google Places page, doing what can get you in trouble?

Guest Post:  Adam Steele is the CEO at Nightlite Media. His expertise includes SEO, social media and email marketing.

Search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in the search engines. As an internet marketing strategy, search engine optimization considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience. In this three part series, I am going to focus on local search engine optimization, otherwise known as Google Places, beginning first with a brief history and thorough explanation of what it means to you and your business. My hope is by the time you finish reading part three, you will be able to take it upon yourself to improve your businesses local presence is Google Places. At the end of each post, I will be offering a FREE game changing eBook that I have put together to help you and your business succeed online.

How Google Local Results Changed SEO

SEO—Search Engine Optimization—has been a necessary staple of website production since the invention of the search engine. Many techniques have been invented to make sure that websites appear as highly as possible when customers and audiences are looking for them. It eventually became evident that some massive websites could use these techniques to maintain their dominance indefinitely, even when users were searching for terms only dubiously related to these dominant websites. Also, these huge websites could afford massive firms to provide SEO services for them, which guaranteed them superior results over smaller websites. For this reason and several others, Google instituted local search results.

What are Google local Search Results?

Google first launched their local results system in late 2010. Simply put, local search results are an adjustment to the Google algorithm which displays results from a user’s local area before national options. For example, if someone in Seattle, WA were using Google to search for a common phrase such as “outdoor furniture” they would have once been directed to a results page filled with companies competing internationally. Now however, local results from actual businesses located in Seattle will be given priority and appear at the top of the page.

The local search results also tied in with the expansion of Google Maps. All the local businesses that appear in the search results will also have their locations and applicable reviews noted. This created a powerful incentive for local businesses to begin investing in their online presence, and gave them a reason to consider SEO services for their own needs.

Why do Google Local Results Matter?

Google Local Results or also commonly known as Google Places, are nothing less than a game changer for the world of SEO. The initial impact of the fact that small businesses could now compete with international companies created several serious changes in the way SEO is done, and how seriously businesses need to take their online presence.

Google Local Results changed SEO in several important ways. First, it shifted the focus for any local results from international businesses with massive budgets to small businesses. After all, no matter what, the small business would appear before the larger business when searching for a term that included a geographical region. Of course, only a few of the top results were dedicated to local businesses, and those spots were now fiercely competitive. New SEO firms that dedicated themselves to local results formed quickly and convinced many businesses of the necessity of updating their marketing to include internet saturation. Small Businesses, for their part, had little choice but to take internet marketing more seriously.

It is not an insider secret of marketing that customers are moving more and more of their business online, and not just when they want to order, but also when they are looking for businesses in their own area. Many services assist with this, be they GPS software, Smart Phone apps or others. The fact that Google dominates most searches on the web makes it necessary for businesses operating in limited geographic areas to begin taking their online presence seriously. Not just because they may now compete with international companies, but also because local businesses are now beginning to powerfully compete in their own areas. When a significant number of new customers are discovering businesses online, it becomes absolutely necessary that businesses take advantage of these conditions to compete.

What does this mean for the future of SEO?

Google Local Results ensured that internet marketing and SEO services are now and forever something that locally-oriented businesses should take advantage of. For small businesses, this means it will be absolutely necessary in the future to understand SEO. It may also mean that SEO positions, or a contract for SEO services becomes an important part of companies that rarely dealt with any sort of online marketing before.

Conclusion

As greater numbers of users and customers shift their lives online, more and more once-rare techniques become necessary for operating in the modern business world. SEO is one of these techniques, and has only become more relevant in the face of dramatic changes like Google Local Results. The consequences of Google Local Results are already evident. The opportunities waiting for both small businesses and specialists alike are daunting to even consider. As in every human endeavor though: Fortune favors the bold.

Now that you have read my monotonous ramble, here is a free eBook that will give you the basics to begin improving your on-page game. That is, I will be providing you with instructions to improve your visibility online simply by making a few changes to what appears on your website. NOW, this eBook is ONLY going to be useful for those who take the time to read. As such, in order to receive your free Game Changing eBook, you must answer a skill testing question, the answer of which is in this post.

Question: What is local search engine optimization or Google Local also known as? Send me your answer to adam.steele@nightlitemedia.com and I will send you your free eBook.

New CityMax.com partner

We are excited to announce that CityMax has partnered with Nightlite Media.

One of the most asked questions we get is: “How do I get visitors to my site?” Nightlite Media are experts at helping people successfully draw visitors to their sites using:

• search engine optimization (i.e. getting your sites ranked highly on search engines like Google)
• social media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook)
• email marketing

We know it’s sometimes difficult to learn and then find the time to promote your site. The reality is that for many of you, getting a company to help you is the best choice. So, our marketing team searched out the best of the best online marketing companies and then put together custom packages we thought made the most sense for our customers. Check out the special packages here.

How important is it to get your online marketing started? Here are some facts that Nightlite Media has put together:

• 97% of potential customers are searching online first
• 61 billion online searches were made in August 2010 alone
• 77% of North Americans are online (that’s a huge 266 million people!)

You can contact Nighlite Media for a 100% free consultation by going to http://websitedynamics.nightlitemedia.com or by calling 1-888- 418-3839. Why not jumpstart your online marketing today!

As you build your business online, you have probably thought about how to improve the performance of the current team that you work with.  Whether you have two employees or two hundred, this series aims to equip you with common sense but not necessarily common practice tools.  This week, I will be blogging about the second step of building strong teams: how to keep your team at peak performance!

Part 2: Managing High Performance

Annual Reviews: Most established organizations have an annual review process that normally coincides with a salary evaluation.  If you do not have annual reviews, you need to consider the cost to your team; however small it happens to be.  The common misconception is that annual reviews are not necessary for small teams, because “they already know what I think of them.”  This couldn’t be further from the truth.

At minimum, annual reviews are a great time to recap the year and discuss what went well and what opportunities came along with your successes.  It is customary to discuss not only a broad view of the organization’s achievements but to focus in on the individual contribution of the employee.  In low trust environments, you will typically see a report card type of review — where a lengthy list of responsibilities is weighted against a measurement scale that attempts to give the employee feedback about their value to the company.  In my experience, these types of reviews are not very engaging to the manager and frankly not much fun for the employee either.  However, its better to have an annual record of such conversations rather than have nothing at all.

Ideally, feedback about an employee’s progress (good and bad) should be presented to them far more regularly than on an annual basis.  If you are not giving feedback weekly, and at minimum, monthly to your employees, you are not setting them up for success.  The pace at which our competition is moving warrants responsible managers to move swiftly to correct inappropriate behavior that detracts the organization from reaching its goals.  Remember the rule: offer one negative feedback for every five positive ones you offer to your employees.  This will help you grow your emotional bank account with your team, and help make your negative feedback hold much more weight.

With this practice in place, you may ask then, what would be the point of an annual review?  Good question.

1. Highlight the year’s feedback. Since feedback is given regularly, I use the annual review to highlight the best feedback that I have given that employee in the past year and point out some of the more consistent opportunities.  At this point, it should no longer be a surprise to the employee.  In fact, the annual reviews should never contain any surprises or unknowns to the your people.  A review of past conversations helps to frame the context of the annual review.
2. Talk about what engages your employee. With feedback summarized quickly in your meeting, start talking to them about the best parts of the past year.  You’ll soon find them talking about the work and responsibilities that excite them and bring purpose and passion to their role.  You may even be surprised that the best part of their year was being called ad hoc into a committee that ordinarily had nothing to do with their role.  Listen carefully to what their heart is drawn to.  This is where you will find their engagement to be at highest level.  As much as the business allows, talk about how you can give them more opportunities to pursue more work that brings them alive. Be sure to also check in on the tasks and responsibilities that drain your team. You may not be able to change the scope of the responsibilities but just being aware of it and offering them a chance to be heard is a valuable exercise in and of itself.
3. Consider the partnership approach. All in all, it’s important to hold the perspective that your employees are partners with you on your organizational goal, rather than employees that need to be micromanaged towards the results that you determine.  Don’t get me wrong, give regular feedback, but in your annual review, make it a time where you give the gift of true listening to your employees.  You will be amazed at how much their engagement levels will change when they feel like they are understood and supported; even if their actual duties don’t change much.

Invest in your Leaders: If you have a larger team, you probably realize that it’s impossible for you to keep track of all the day-to-day operations of your business unless you appoint leaders that manage a segment of the business.  If you have a large team with direct reports who are managers, it is wise to spend the majority of the time allotted to personnel issues with your leaders.  I have an open door policy where any employee can approach me for any reason.  However, I typically initiate and make sure that I spend a good chunk of time connecting with my managers.

1. Connect intentionally. In these regular meetings, I use the same discussion process as the annual review but in a much more simplified fashion.  First, I review high-level priorities.  At CityMax, I am privileged to work with a wonderful group of managers, so I am usually doling out compliments whenever I remember to.  I affirm all the great qualities that I appreciate and I thank them for the great results they have shown. Next I discuss how their energy level is with their current load of responsibilities and do the best I can to alleviate any stuck points or hindrances.  Lastly, I hold the perspective that we are partners, and consistently ask them for feedback on my performance as well as anything that I can do to help them do their jobs to their best level.
2. Listen carefully whenever your leaders give you feedback about yourself because there is usually more underneath a meek offering that you can learn about yourself and how you can be a better support to them.  As much as possible, involve them in major decision making processes and consider their concerns with the utmost care.  I firmly believe that leaders ignore their manager’s opinions and suggestions to their own detriment.  In a spirit of partnership, the less you treat them as underlings, the more engagement you will see as they not only interact with you but with the people that they lead.
3. Be a resource. One of my worst career experiences was when I was starting out in business and was working for a prominent retail chain.  As was common, there were management shifts that caused me to have a new boss.  This manager would speak down to his people disrespectfully and every week he would assign work to his people that far exceeded a reasonable completion time.  Imagine if your boss asks you to finish a project in a week that would normally take two weeks… and then did absolutely nothing to help you.  Nobody wants to work for a tyrant and no one will respect your leadership unless you show your people that you truly care about their well-being.  Jim Collins in the influential management classic “Good to Great,” writes that the most effective leaders leading today’s most successful companies have a deep humility with the people they work with.  So consider being a resource to your people instead of only simply being a delegator.
   1. Ask your managers if you can shift around organizational and people resources to help supplement capacity for large undertakings and urgent tasks.  Always ask if you have done your part in providing the best environment for them to succeed.
   2. Find ways to provide educational resources that can help your leaders grow professionally and personally.  This could be supporting a portion of their tuition as they pursue a professional certification, or simply paying for the cost of a conference that would refresh their relevant work skills.
   3. Just because you’re not in it for the money, doesn’t mean that your people don’t care either.  As much as possible, find ways to financially care for your leaders.  It’s not easy to justify paying a premium for good work but consider the loss of productivity should a key person leave.  Think about how expensive it would be to firstly find a person of similar qualifications and knowledge base about your business and then ask yourself how long it would take a new person to pick up where the other one left off.  I think you see where I am going with this.  The worst feeling for an employee is to give up hope that they will reach their financial goals with their current employer, find new work, give notice, and THEN find out that the current employer is willing to give them a substantial raise to stay. “If you are willing to pay me that much now, why have you held back all this time?”

   If you take care of your leaders, you will find that the investment more often than not will only benefit the stability of your organization.  Remember to connect intentionally with them, listen carefully to their feedback and always find ways to be a resource to them so they can be freed to focus on getting the bottom line results you need to see your organization thrive.

(Darrell Lim is our Operations Manager at CityMax but he is also a trained organizational development coach.  Find out more about him and get more business insights at his CityMax powered business website: www.oakmanagementconsulting.com.)c

Have you ever thought about moving your blog from one host to another, but were afraid of what might happen to your search engine ranking?

Should Double Dragon Jewelry move their blog?

Cindy of Double Dragon Jewelry Ltd. is deciding that exact scenario. She’s debating whether to move her new blog from BlogSpot.com (one of the most popular blogging software programs) to one that will allow her to keep her blog as part of her jewelry website.

Just to make this clear, her jewelry is being sold on:

silverjewelry-sterling.com

Her blog is currently at:

doubledragonsilverjewelry.blogspot.com/

Her web host, i.e. CityMax which is us, has added a blogging option so she could have her blog on:

silverjewelry-sterling.com/blog.html

If Cindy moved her blog to silverjewelry-sterling.com, she would have to weigh the following:

1. Potential to improve the rank of silverjewelry-sterling.com

Having her blog on her CityMax site will do 3 things that may increase her search engine rank for silverjewelry-sterling.com. First, every blog post is new content on her site. The more often you update your site, the more often search engines will re-index it (i.e. check out your site to see what new info is posted so their links are up to date) and rank your site higher.

Second, each blog post Cindy does will hopefully result in more links to silverjewelry-sterling.com because people like her posts. Each link or “vote” helps your search engine ranking. If a website with a high search engine rank links to your page, this is even better. Their “vote” for your site is actually worth several votes.

Third, each time Cindy posts a new article, this will result in a new page that can be linked to from the search engines to her site. This in turn will mean more opportunities to draw people to her site. The more people who visit her site, the higher her website ranking will be.

2. Cannot take search engine rank of doubledragonsilverjewelry.blogspot.com to new blog

If Cindy already has a good rank for doubledragonsilverjewelry.blogspot.com,she cannot transfer that rank directly to her new blog pages. This is because her blog is moving to a different domain. The search engines will recognize this change as doubledragonsilverjewelry.blogspot.com has shut down and then when they index her blog on silverjewelry-sterling.com/blog.html, they will recognize this as a new blog.

3. Beware of duplicate content as it can get your site delisted temporarily

If Cindy plans to move over articles she posted on doubledragonsilverjewelry.blogspot.com to silverjewelry-sterling.com/blog.html, she could get silverjewelry-sterling.com delisted temporarily. The reason is search engines don’t like duplicate content or even very similar content. It looks like someone who isn’t an authority on a topic, just copied someone else’s content. Everything is automated too, you cannot tell Google: “Hey, I just moved my blog to ______.”

Cindy may want to only post new articles on her silverjewelry-sterling.com/blog.html blog at first and not copy over any of her old articles. After her old blog has been closed for a considerable amount of time (many months) such that the old page content is no longer indexed on search engines, she can then repost the articles.

4. Potential to increase sales on silverjewelry-sterling.com

Cindy is likely to get more people to click to other parts of silverjewelry-sterling.com since her website navigation will be right beside her blog posts. This may result in greater sales. Note that if she didn’t move her blog over, you could argue that she could simply have a link to her jewelry online store.

5. Functionality and Convenience

Cindy needs to weigh the functionality of the 2 blogs. To BlogSpot’s credit, they have had many years to develop their site and blogs are their primary focus. CityMax is an all-in-one website builder and must balance the benefits of developing the blog further against other features that are requested. When it comes to convenience, Cindy may like that she can manage everything on CityMax instead of having to monitor 2 websites.

If anyone has any other reasons to move or not move a blog, please post them in the comments.

Photo courtesy of ShoestringVenture.com

For small businesses interested in some free publicity, Steve Monas of ShoestringVenture.com:  The Startup Bible Blog is looking for startup businesses that were started on a shoestring budget and that have a website. You can submit your interest with a brief synopsis to query-1bwf@helpareporter.com. Submissions must be received by 7:00 PM EST on July 20th, 2011. If your story is chosen, you may also get published in a future book as a case study.

You can see examples of the kind of stories they’ve published before here. Please don’t contact him if your story has already been published before on his site. ShoestringVenture.com gets 2,000 visitors per day so it’s worthwhile to give it a try.

As you build your business online, you have probably thought about how to improve the performance of the current team that you work with. Whether you have two employees or two hundred, this series aims to equip you with common sense but not necessarily common practice tools. This week, I will be blogging about the first step of building strong teams: the hiring process!

Part 1: The Hiring Process

Create detailed job postings: I have seen far too many job advertisements that have a total of 3 lines of detail in the posting. The more information you can put down about the job, the less work you have to do in weeding out unqualified candidates. This, in turn, saves you valuable time to focus on your business. As you consider posting for an opening in your company, be clear about:

• The job duties. If it’s a generalist position, then be clear in the posting that it is so and list the varied duties. The more detail you put down, the more you will be able to interest good people who are on the fence about applying for your job. Otherwise, you depend on an applicant’s current paradigm about what it would be like to work for a clothing company or a trade business – this could deter you from finding the best candidate.

• The job qualifications. Be clear about the educational background and past experience that is critical to the success of your applicant. You’ll be surprised at how many apply for managerial positions for which they either have no education or past experience. Awhile back, I consulted with a grocery store that had been looking for a Bakery Manager for almost a year. One of my first areas of investigation was the current job posting they had advertised. You would be shocked if I told you the percentage of people who applied to the role whose baking repertoire was only limited to their kitchen! The problem was that the ad simply said: “Bakery Manager wanted, send a resume to ABC Grocery store.” Instead, they should have made it clear that they were looking to hire someone with at least 3 years of experience in ordering supplies for a scratch bakery as well as managing a team of 6 or more. This would certainly have ruled out the wannabes from the true talent they were looking for.

• The job remuneration. Although people will not admit it, one of the first things that applicants are looking for is how much they will be paid. If the salary meets their expectations, they are more likely to take it seriously. The reality is that most people end up taking the first job they know they can perform well in - at the rate that they believe they are worth. If you hold out salary information until the end of the interview process, you stand the risk of losing someone even though you may have been prepared to pay him or her more than your competitor! Also, if you have a generous benefits plan or anything that is unique or rare in your industry - put that on the posting!

Look for Competence, Character and Chemistry: Too many employers focus only on past experience or education. The problem with that approach is that it only hones in on one part of what it takes to have a successful team. To be sure, it’s vitally important to hear from a candidate about what they have done in the past, but it’s also useful to hear about what they would do in a hypothetical situation. Asking behavior based questions helps you to learn how the candidate problem solves and reacts under conditions that may be unique to your work environment. It also forces them to think outside the box a bit, as it’s quite easy to prepare well for the typical interview questions.

After you get a good sense for their competence, check in with a behavior based question that reflects a character value you uphold. For example, ask them what they would do if they saw a co-worker stealing, or if they witnessed an internal or external harassment issue. You will quickly get an idea if this person is the type of person you will not only enjoy working with (because of their competence), but their values will be personified through the way they answer character related questions.

Lastly, evaluate for chemistry. There may not be specific questions that you can use to consider the chemistry you may have with a potential employee but it’s a vital part of your working relationship. You could have someone who is of good character and delivers results consistently but if they root for a baseball team that you despise or you can’t imagine having an enjoyable conversation on Monday about the weekend, you may be best to move onto someone else you know that is easy to relate to. This personal connection will add dividends to your professional relationship in spades.

Invest in a background check. A recent study showed that 1 in 3 job applicants have included some form of dishonesty on their resume. This may seem like a shocking amount but this may not be surprising since 2 out of 3 people have been surveyed as having cheated for a test while in college. The fact is that most people who cheat sincerely believe that they can get away with it. I have conducted many background checks after I have interviewed successful candidates and it’s always disappointing to hear that the employment records were inaccurate or the educational qualification was fudged. The cost of training a new employee is exponential compared to the couple hundred dollars you can spend on a background check. A good background check can also reduce costs on employee theft, reduces employee turnover and creates a safe workplace environment for your team. Typical background checks will include:

• Educational and employment history verification
• Reference checks
• Criminal record check (Theft and Violence)
• Credit check.
• Industry specific verifications like Driver Abstracts and Public Safety.

There are many reputable organizations that offer this service, but please verify the presence of certifications and memberships that are relevant to your state or province before you choose who will contract this work out to.

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Darrell Lim is our Operations Manager at CityMax but he is also a trained organizational development coach. Find out more about him and get more business insights at his CityMax powered business website: www.oakmanagementconsulting.com.

When something goes wrong, it’s natural to want to ask for help from someone you feel is an expert especially when it comes to computers and software programs. However, there are a few simple tricks for fixing some problems that anyone can do. Below, I’ll go over how to do each one and why they can make a difference.

1. Undo a previous action

If everything had been working fine for a long time, but suddenly stopped working, think back to the last action you did before things broke. If possible, try and undo it. I’ve seen this commonly happen when a person tries to copy in code or some other information that they found on another site and put it on their CityMax.com website. Try to go back to your editing page and remove the code or snippet of information.

If your editing button isn’t working, it may be the new code you put in has broken the button. If this happens, go to “EDIT SITE” -> “MY PAGES” -> click the “EDIT” button beside your page. The code only breaks the page it’s posted on, but “MY PAGES” is a different page and may therefore get you access to edit.

2. Delete your cookies

A cookie is a small file that saves information like your login, so as you navigate your website, you don’t have to log into every page. Without a cookie, your computer wouldn’t be able to remember any information you might want to carry forward to other pages.

Why would you want to delete your cookies? Sometimes cookies become corrupted and cause problems with login or other actions, so they need to be deleted. Corruption can happen when your computer is trying to save a cookie file, but your browser crashes (e.g. Internet Explorer stops working suddenly), you lose your internet connection or for many other reasons. Don’t worry, it’s not a big deal and you can fix the problem.

How you delete your cookies depends on which browser and version you’re on (e.g. Internet Explorer 7.0). To find out which one you’re on, go to http://www.thismachine.info. Next, do a search on Google for “delete cookies” and your browser and version number.

3. Clear your browser cache

Your browser cache is a folder on your computer that keeps copies of pages (images, text, etc.) you’ve already visited online. If you go back to an already visited page, instead of having to download the page again, your computer will draw it from your cache. This makes your page display faster.

As your cache grows with more and more saved items, it may start slowing down your browser. In other cases, you may want to see a newer version of a page, but your computer keeps drawing the page it saved instead.

From time to time, delete everything in your browser cache (this is also called “emptying your cache” or “clearing your cache”). Depending on your browser and version, the instructions vary. Go to http://www.thismachine.info to find out what browser you’re on. Next, do a search on Google for “clear browser cache” plus your browser and version number.

4. Restart your computer

Sometimes the best fix is to turn your computer off and then turn it back on. When computers haven’t been restarted in a long time, sometimes they start to act oddly:  programs are slow, pages freeze, clicking on something doesn’t work, etc. Restarting your computer clears out everything in your trash and all your programs by default have to be reloaded. This can fix a lot of issues.

Hopefully, these fixes may help you troubleshoot some of the problems you encounter on your computer. If you’re still stuck, contact the support team and remember to follow the 7 tips for better customers support.

When you need help with an online application, a customer support representative can be your best friend. Your expectation is to have speedy help and a solution that works. But, did you know that you can greatly improve the service you get?  You might be thinking:  ”This is where they tell me to be more courteous.”  Sure, that’s always greatly appreciated, but I’m actually referring to providing information in your help request that will make fixing your problem faster.

Here’s information that will help customer service agents help you:

1. Include the web address of the problem page

This will save the support agent from having to look through all your pages for the right page and prevent any misunderstandings about which page is the problem. To get the web address, you will want to copy (highlight and press CTRL+C) and paste (press CTRL+V) the web address into your request for help. Usually it starts with http.

The web address of a page is near the top of your browser window

2. Include your login name

This information may help the support agent verify you are the owner of the website. Although they may have a way to look up your login name through your web address, it’s just another way to save them time so they can help you more quickly. On CityMax.com, you don’t need to include your login name if you have logged into your site and clicked on the SUPPORT link at the top.

3. Describe step-by-step what happened

Specifically, what actions did you do just prior to the problem occurring?  What did you click on? Were there any options that you selected? Make it possible for the support agent to do the exact same steps as you to recreate the issue so they can see it firsthand.

4. Explain what you did to try and fix the problem

In some cases, you may have extra information that will help the support agent.  You do not have to test your problem thoroughly, but it may be helpful to know the following information:  Does this problem happen on more than just this one page? Has this problem occurred before? Did you change anything on the page recently before the problem occurred on it? Did you try to delete your cache or cookies or restart your computer (more on this in my next blog post)?

5. Copy and paste in any error messages

If an error message comes up whether directly in your web page or pops up from your computer, copy and paste exactly what it says into your message to your support agent.

6. Indicate which web browser you’re using

Web browsers are what you use to access the Internet. The most common ones are:  Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari. They do not operate the same and on the programming side sometimes require special snippets of code to deal with different tasks. In addition to telling the support agent which one you’re using, the version of your browser also matters. Every now and then, a browser will be updated with new capabilities and improvements and they’ll go up a version from say 2.0 to 3.0. You can find out which versions you’re on by going to http://www.thismachine.info. As soon as you go there, it will automatically tell you your browser and version number.

7. Attach a picture

In some cases, a picture of what’s on your screen may be helpful. To do this on a PC, while the problem page is showing on your screen, press SHIFT+PrtScn to take a screenshot of everything that you see. Then, open Microsoft Word (also ok on Graphics programs) and paste (CTRL+V) in your screenshot.  Save and include the file in your request for help. On a MAC, press COMMAND+SHIFT+3 and this will save the screenshot as an image file on your computer.

Here’s an example of a support request with just the right amount of details:

Hi,

I uploaded an image (tourist.jpg in my Tours Folder) without any problems, but when I posted it on page http://www.newyorktours.citymax.com/about_us.html, it looks distorted. I tried resizing it to 400 x 300 but the image looks stretched out. I left the image up there for you to take a look at it.

I didn’t have problems resizing and posting another image this way at http://www.newyorktours.citymax.com/testimonials.html (tourgroup.jpg in my Tours Folder).

login:  newyorktours
browser:  IE 7.0

Thanks,
Emily

As a former customer support agent and manager, my goal is to make sure you get timely help and walk away a happy customer. Hopefully these tips will help you get better and faster customer support.

In my next post, I’ll go over some common fixes so you may not need a customer support agent at all.