You’ve probably heard about it by now, but Google and the other major search engines have started indexing “real-time” information from social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

So when customers are trying to find you on the web, your business not only competes with other web sites, it has to also compete with blogs, online videos, mobile apps, and now real-time information coming from social networking sites too!

But don’t worry – your Online Expo Booth can help you get noticed by your customers and the search engines alike, giving you a great way to stand out from the crowd, build inbound links, and drive new traffic to your web site!

As the web becomes a more diverse place, not all customers will want to interact with businesses in the same way. So in the past, a web site alone may have been sufficient in meeting your customers’ needs. But today, consumers expect to interact with your business whether through your web site, social networking sites, or interactive web sites like your Online Expo Booth.

One of the most important benefits you have with your Online Expo Booth is that it provides you with additional inbound links – a huge factor in determining where your business shows up in the search engine rankings. So between the inbound links built-in to your Online Booth and the Social Networking profile links available, there are up to 11 separate inbound links you can use to help customers and search engines find you more easily online.

So if you haven’t updated your Online Expo Booth in a while, or if you still have not added your Social Networking links to your Booth, now is a great time to make sure you are getting all of the benefits available from your Online Expo Booth!

Spring is on the way – and with it come the many Business Expo events that Chambers sponsor in local communities to promote you – their Chamber members!

Whether you are a long-time exhibitor or a show attendee at these events, Business Expos are a great opportunity for you to promote your business, network with others in the community, and discover new business opportunities among the new faces (and old friends) that you connect with.

Your Online Expo Booth is a natural extension of the physical Business Expo, and you can use it to extend all the benefits that come with Expo participation far beyond the actual event and keep the momentum going all year long – online where people can find you 24/7!

As you prepare your displays and marketing materials for your upcoming Business Expo, don’t forget to take a look at your Online Expo Booth as well. Each time you update the information in your Online Expo Booth, you not only provide your visitors with the fresh information they want, but you also provide fresh content for the search engines to index as well.

For More Marketing Impact, Try These Tips:

1. Match your online booth’s content to the promotions you’re planning for your physical expo booth. Update your coupons, PDFs, and even photos and logos to match the materials in your physical booth, which will help reinforce your message in both places.

2. Go Social! Make sure that your social networking profiles are listed in your Online Expo Booth, and cross promote your booth with your social profiles as well. This will also help build additional inbound links and generate interest and additional visitors to your booths, both physical and virtual.

Research shows that 73% of Americans spend time on the web EVERY DAY. With so many people on the web, it makes sense for your business to do everything possible to stand out and get noticed. Your Online Expo Booth is a great way to promote your business and get more attention online – where your customers and potential customers are already looking!

You should also be using every available tool to help capture attention for your business, and your Online Expo Booth has plenty of tools you can use to help your business get noticed on the web. Are you taking full advantage of this opportunity?

Your booth is already working for you 24/7/365, so here are some things you can do to leverage its power and generate even more attention for your business:

Update Your Information
Is your contact information up-to-date? Are you offering any new or additional products or services? Give your booth’s content a quick once-over to make sure you’re representing your company in the best possible light.

Upload PDFs
Your booth allows for two PDF uploads – take advantage of this feature! Upload your company brochure, a data sheet, your Calendar of Events, flyers, testimonials, or anything that you think will capture your visitors’ attention and give them the information they’re looking for.

Promote Your Specials
Are you offering any specials or limited-time offers? You can upload your most recent coupons directly to your Online Expo Booth to advertise your latest deals and promos. Give your booth visitors a little extra incentive to engage with you by making your special offers available right in your booth!

Get Social
Make it easy for your booth’s visitors to stay connected with your business – add your Social Profiles to your Online Expo Booth. You’ve already done the work to create social profiles, so make the most of your efforts and include them in your booth!

These simple updates can go a long way toward getting visitors to notice you and drawing more attention to your business on the web.

With the Holiday Season rapidly approaching, there are a few easy updates you can make to your Online Expo Booth to promote your Holiday events, special offers, and more – just use these four easy steps to give your Online Expo Booth some extra selling power for you this Holiday Season!

1.) Update Your Coupons:
Is your business gearing up for the coming season? Promote your special offers for the Holidays! You can upload your most recent special offer to the Coupon section of your Expo Booth to advertise the great deals you’re giving shoppers this season. Having your latest holiday coupons available can give booth visitors a little extra incentive to shop with you this Holiday Season.

2.) Fresh PDF Files:
Did you know that your Online Expo Booth allows you to upload two additional PDF files? The newly upgraded PDF feature in your Expo Booth allows for much faster PDF upload, making it easier than ever to keep your content fresh and relevant for the Holiday Season. Not sure what to post? How about an invitation to your Holiday Open House, a flyer for a Holiday Sale you’d like to promote, or your company’s Calendar of Events for this Holiday Season?

3.) Optimize Your Booth:
Optimize your booth for the search engines! In your Booth’s Marketing Center, there is a specific field available for search engine keywords and phrases, which can hold up to 250 characters. The keywords (and phrases) that you add to this field automatically become “meta data” in the behind-the-scenes HTML code for your booth, helping search engines to find your booth more easily! In fact, many Online Expo booths come up in the search engine listings ahead of a company’s own web site! Make it easy for holiday shoppers to find your booth (and as a result, your holiday coupons, promotions, and events) by adding or updating your booth’s search engine keywords.

4.) Social Networking:
Are you using Social Networking like Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook? Make it easy for your booth’s visitors to stay connected with your company – add your Social Profiles to your Online Expo Booth! You already put the work into creating your social profiles, so why not make it easy for booth visitors to also engage with you on the social networks as well?

With these four easy steps, you can quickly and easily Deck the Virtual Halls of your Online Expo Booth for a successful Holiday Season.

Simply having a web site for your company is not enough anymore – not only do your customers expect to see you where they are already spending their time (e.g., social networking sites), but search engines are increasingly listing content from sites like YouTube, Twitter, and – you guessed it – your Online Expo booth! In fact, an Online Expo booth often ranks higher in the Search Engines than a company’s own web site!

Over the past few months we have added several new features to your Online Expo booth, making it easier than ever to give your company an expanded online presence. For instance, now you can:

• Add SEO data to your booth (keywords that become meta-data) – follow up by using your keywords within your content.
• Add your Social Networking Profiles to your Online Expo booth – it’s easy to do, and it allows your booth’s visitors to connect to you in a variety of ways.
• Add PDF files more easily – the PDF upload feature has been redesigned to make it quick and easy for you to instantly upload pdf files to your Online Expo booth. Did you know that Search Engines can also “read” the text in your PDFs? Sprinkle your keywords throughout the PDFs you upload to add extra “link juice.”

A few simple updates to your booth can do more than you think to expand your reach online and boost your search engine rankings.

When updating your Online Expo booth, you will notice that the interface includes a field for search engine keywords and phrases, which can hold up to 250 characters.

The keywords (and phrases) that you add into this field will automatically become “meta data” in the behind-the-scenes HTML code for your booth when you save your booth information when making updates or changes.

However, to get the most attention from the search engine spiders that crawl your booth, make sure you re-use your keywords throughout the rest of the text in your booth, as well as adding them in the keywords field.

Here is a simple formula you can use to guide your keyword placements in your booth paragraphs:

1. Select 10 keywords that you think customers would use to find your business when searching

2. Since there are five paragraphs of text in your booth, you can use two of your selected keywords in each paragraph of text.

Search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo all have the ability to not only read the HTML code found on a web site, but they can also read and index additional files, such as Adobe PDF files.

Your Online Expo Booth can accommodate two PDF files, and the links to these files display right in the “Additional Information” panel of your booth.

For added search engine “link juice,” try including one or two of your keywords when you type in the Title and Description of your files when uploading them to your booth (the new upload interface makes it easy to do this, too!).

When crawling the web, search engines love to find two things; 1) great content, and 2) links. By uploading PDF files to your Online Expo booth and using keyword-rich links as Titles and Descriptions, you are giving the search engines exactly what they need to boost your business in the search results!

Your Online Expo Booth is an optimized, highly targeted web page that you can use to get the attention of customers as well as the search engines, especially when you add new, updated information to your Booth.

Here are some ideas you can use to update your Booth this month:

• Recycle your advertisements! The ads you use for other publications can also be uploaded to your Booth.
• Add a list of upcoming events that your business is sponsoring or attending this summer.
• Replace your existing (or expired) coupon with something new for July

Remember to update the keywords in your account to match any new terms contained in the updated content.

Your Online Expo Booth is built to accommodate a great variety of marketing and promotional materials, so make sure you are taking advantage of all the benefits available to you in your booth.

Your booth has a place for:

• A logo, a business photo, and one more image of your choosing (portfolio pic, online coupon, product photo, etc.
• Two pdf files (brochure, catalog, newsletter, flyers, etc.)
• Live links to your web site and to your email address
• Two business categories
• Search engine keywords

The more information you add to your booth, the more usability you are adding for potential customers!

Log in to your Marketing Center account today and make sure you are giving your business the best online exposure possible!

No time to update your booth? Click here to find out how we can help!