Archive for the ‘Local SEO’ Category
Tampa SEO Consultant – Local Search 101
Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 January 2012 05:33 Written by Mike Friday, 24 July 2009 12:37
For any local brick and mortar store or service provider, it is important to submit your business to the local business directories. A complete local business profile on Google, Yahoo, and Bing’s local business directories can bring in high converting traffic to your business.
Claim Your Listing!
The first thing you will want to do is sign up for Google LBC, Yahoo LBC, and MSN LBC and claim your listing. By claiming your listing you verify that you are the businesses owner. For Google they allow you to verify your listing by calling your phone and entering the pin code they provide, or you can wait for a pin number to be mailed. Yahoo & Bing will manually verify the business listing by mailing you a letter with a PIN code.
Tags: local, Local Search, search, SEO | Posted under Local SEO, Showcase, Tampa SEO | No Comments
Ethical SEO
Last Updated on Saturday, 26 November 2011 06:24 Written by Mike Thursday, 23 July 2009 09:21
Something is bothering me. With increasing regularity I am hearing SEO horror stories. This saddens me to the point of writing about it. I want to point out how SEO should work and what kind of results you should be getting.
The reason I am using the term Ethical SEO is pretty obvious. A SEO consultant should have your businesses best interest at heart. Internet marketing is big business. That is one of the reasons you get rather unscrupulous chracters delivering sub-standard work.
A common practice for shady SEO ‘expert’ is to promise you first page search results. No matter or discussion of your business or keywords, they just guarantee you first page results. Immediately this should set off warnings signs for anyone that has even a remote inkling of what SEO is.
Just the other day I heard a story from a potential customer. A ‘seo’ guy paid them a visit recently, pretty much guaranteed first page Google results for them. They took the bait. Signed a contract and paid the fees. After a period of time they received a report stating that the work was complete. What they saw next completely shocked them, they were indeed in first position, for completely wrong keywords. Keywords that do not receive much search traffic. Money wasted on pure crap SEO. Unfortunately, this happens a LOT. Don’t let it happen to you.
Typically these people will charge an arm and a leg. $5000 is not an uncommon price. Often times they deliver really bad results often hurting businesses more than helping them. Consider this for just a moment. If you spend no time researching keywords, understanding the clients business and what people are searching for, how in the heck can you deliver results. The answer to that is pretty simple, you cannot.
If your thinking of hiring an SEO consultant here are a few things to look out for.
- Takes the time to talk to you about your business. A great SEO consultant will take the time to learn what it is your business does. How you make a living, what type of products and/or services you specialize in. I wont need your entire businesses history, typically I can learn enough in about 30 minutes.
- Understands how to read keyword tools. This is very important as this pertains directly to what people actually search for. This will help them determine if they can meet your SEO goals.
- In addition to understanding keyword tool usage, explains what people search for and what keywords you should be targeting. An Ethical SEO specialist will tell you if there is not enough search volume to warrant the expense. SEO types cannot make people search for your product.
- Makes no promises of guaranteed first page results for highly competitive keywords. The ethical SEO specialist will explain what keywords they think they can get you to rank for.
- Will tell you if you are fighting a losing battle. Even though a SEO consultant is a sales person, the ethical SEO guru will tell you if they CANNOT help your business. It is rare but there are some cases where there is too much competition and not enough funding available to accomplish the desired goals.
- Will make you sign an agreement outlining very specific details of their work, and you’re expected results.
That’s about it for now, if you have something to add I would love to hear your comments.
Local SEO Generates Local Traffic and Sales
Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 January 2012 07:52 Written by Mike Tuesday, 21 July 2009 06:58
SEO is not always some dark mysterious wizardry. Many web properties undertake SEO in an effort to help increase their national – or perhaps international – visibility online. Other companies are only concerned about attracting customers in their neighborhood, something local search experts says is much easier.
Attracting local search traffic is much easier than optimizing a website for a national or international audience. Local Search efforts often pay off immensely. In the last couple of years, all the major search engines have added local results to their global results pages. Google maps and the local business center has replaced the yellow pages our parents used.
The best part of this type of SEO? Local SEO is considerably less expensive! for a one time optimization fee, or maybe an ongoing SEM marketing campaign, than it is to pay for top spot on a nationally competitive keyword. This type of optimization works best for brick and mortar businesses and also for service providers.
Many local companies saw an increase in search engine optimization (SEO) earlier this year without doing anything to their websites when Google made local search the default setting for result pages.
Imagine what you can do if you work on local keywords to bring your products to focus in local search results.
Incoming search terms:
- local seo one time fee
Local Community is Alive and well in Tampa
Last Updated on Thursday, 30 July 2009 03:12 Written by Mike Monday, 20 July 2009 07:01
After my last tweetup at @brighteyestampa facility in Westchase, I left with a much stronger sense of community involvement in twitter. Previous tweet-ups were a little different. Maybe because the size was a tad smaller everyone was a little closer to each other. Maybe it was the wine tasting. Either way I wanted to thank Dr. Nathan Bonilla-Warford of Bright Eyes Family Vision Care for organizing a fabulous event.
Just maybe it was the participants themselves. Almost each and every individual I talked to was very receptive and seemed to have a genuine interest in local community building and awareness. From listening to speaking about who’s doing what, that’s a major kudos for the Tampa Bay area. For having the businesses that encourage and foster that community spirit.
I had the pleasure of meeting Michele Northrup of Intensity Academy and For some seriously delish hot sauce you absolutely have to check out her Hot Sauce Company their philosophy is really very simple “the highest belief in intense flavors”. After taking home a bottle of Chai Tea chipotle, I can happily report it is quite interesting tangy and mellow, with enough zing to wake the tastebuds.
The twitter universe expands my sense of community and social connections more and more each day. It is indeed a great time to be alive. At least in the Tampa Bay area community involvement continues to grow. There is hope for us after all.
Tags: Community, local | Posted under Best of the Web, Local SEO | No Comments
Local SEO – Why your small business should consider it
Last Updated on Tuesday, 17 January 2012 05:31 Written by Mike Wednesday, 8 July 2009 06:51
Local search engine optimization or ‘local seo’ is much less complicated by comparison to national search engine placements and for a majority of businesses, this represents a huge opportunity for tapping the local population, which actually have much higher sales conversion rates. Think of the search engines as the new yellow pages.
Within the last couple of years the search engines have been providing improved “local search” features. Google in particular has been embedding these “Maps” inside their search pages as part of their Universal Search results. This has opened new opportunities for local businesses and requires different techniques, from organic SEO, to get exposure there. We can help your business get more exposure with local SEO. As Maps usage grows it is becoming more important to be seen here as well as in organic search. In addition when people search they tend to search for keywords related to services. Google knows where the search originates from based on factors such as IP address, preferences, and search history. This is where a savvy local search expert can get you noticed. Results are typically quick, and very rewarding.
Tags: local seo, marketing, Optimization, SEO, Tampa | Posted under Local SEO, Showcase | 3 Comments
