Understanding the history of search might help your online efforts.
Google employees talk about the beginnings of search in this video.
If you read the book Search you got a pretty good idea about the origins of Google and the amelioration of all the other search engines that existed in the last century.
Love ‘em or hate ‘em it’s always good to hear from the trend setters in search.
So enjoy and comment if you so desire.
It’s time to get serious about SEO for your business.The sooner you understand this thing called “SEO” the better it will be for you and your business. SEO is short for search engine optimization. It is the implementation of certain onsite and off site principles so that your site gets found easier, ranks higher, and in turn – if you’re a business – creates more revenue by bringing you more targeted, paying customers. The steps involved can be as simple as adding headers to as complex as creating well optimized landing pages with great sales copy.
If you are trying to do SEO for yourself and your business then you need to look at headlines. Do you have a minimum of three headlines on each page? Normally these would be referenced in your site design software as H1, H2, and H3. Make sure you take the major points you are trying to make on each page, summarize the following content with a short line indicating what it is about. This will be one of your headlines. Then do the same for the other headlines. For example you can see I used headlines for the beginning of this page and then just above this paragraph. This lets the search engines know that you are doing your best to make it easy to read and keeping your content organized. It also tells them quickly what your page is about. This is important for quality SEO
This could also be titled – “The Only Thing That Should Be Stuffed is The Thanksgiving Turkey”. For years the rule of thumb was to stuff as many search phrases as you could into your content so that the search engines wouldn’t miss anything. Well this resulted in search results less than pleasing to the eye and now it’s a big red flag to the search engines. If you’re going to write a page or post about one of the services you offer with your business in then you want to devote one page to one service. This way the search engine spiders (bots) don’t get confused and deliver results that are relevant thereby giving you better SEO. This is an important point so take heed. If you’re a local business you could be losing ground to a competitor in the same line of work because they’re following this very principle.
Internal links are those links found in your content that take you from one page to another on your site. The search engines penalize sites that do not have a quality internal link structure and then drop you in the rankings for your search terms. This would be an example of bad SEO.
Here is an example of an internal link and good SEO. Be sure to check out our services. Not too hard, right? A lesson in setting that up is for another time though.
It’s always good to have a picture on the page. It captures the readers interest. However if you haven’t tagged your image properly with the keyword you’re trying to get ranked for then you’ve lost valuable SEO points. There are plenty of places to get this information but if you click getting images optimized it will take you to a page that will go into this in detail. The preceding link is an example of an external link. You should have at least one of these in each page of your content. An external link is simply one that takes someone off your website to another site to get more information. Don’t panic. The search engines really like this. It presents you as more of an authority site trying to provide good information to your visitor and improve your visitor experience. Just remember to have that link open in a new window so they don’t lose your site.
People search locally to find services. They use their computer, their cell phone, and, if your fancy like my wife, their IPad 2. You need to make sure that your phone number is large on the home page. You need to make sure your address is large and that both are above the fold (that area that is visible before you have to scroll). You even need to make sure your hours are large. People need information fast. For example, a person has a water leak. Do you think they’re going to take the time to search for your contact info? Or, are they going to call the plumber with the easy to read phone number? You know the answer. Get large for your home page SEO and you’ll never look back.
You can get a nice clean mobile site built that will have the basic contact info so it’s easy for your customers to call you. If you want to know what your site looks like on a cell phone then go to our mobile marketing for business page and click on the first link provided. If you have to scroll to the right to see it then you need to get a mobile site. f you have to squint to read it then you have to get a mobile site.
If you insist on doing it yourself then follow these 5 rules for better search rankings for your business.
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Local Search is about getting your business found by local prospects.Getting found through local search by buyers looking for their services is the single biggest struggle for local businesses . If you are going to have an online presence then you need to pay attention to this part of your marketing efforts. More and more people are using their phone and the internet to find a local business to answer their questions, solve their problems or buy merchandise. If you have a website and rely on local traffic then you need to have a plan in place to deal with your local presence. This is where a system designed to handle your local search is needed now more than ever before.
Do you have your service or product listed in your URL or domain name?
For example, Is your site listed as businessname.com when perhaps having a domain of localtownseptic repair.com would work better? I can’t speak for Google but we know through trial and error that our clients get better results with local search when they choose a domain that reflects their town or state combined with the service or product they offer.
Do you have your phone number featured in large font at the top of your website?
We have fixed many sites that had made it a chore to find phone number and contact information on the front page of their sites.
You should have your hours listed and your address in an easy to find place in larger font on the front page of your site. If you get ambitious you can even have a link to Google Maps and make it even easier to have your local clients and prospects find you.
Have you claimed your free Google Places listing for local search?
For the time being this is being made available to local businesses for free. The benefit of this listing is you can show your hours, location, and services or products that you offer. And because it is Google making this offer for local search you will get listed even without a website. You can also claim a listing with Bing Local Search and Yahoo Local Search.
Have you listed your business in business directories such as Yelp, Merchants Circle, Angie’s List etc. to help with your local search efforts?
These listings are also free – although they will try to sell you paid features this is not necessary to start – and give you a chance to have your listing include your domain hence giving you more credibility in both Google’s eyes and also your prospects.
This is just a start to get your local search efforts going. There are many other ways to optimize your local search presence and we would be happy to help you dominate your area for the service or products you provide.
Just call us and we can help you with your local search efforts.
We’ll even give you a free analysis of your website and specific ideas to help you improve your rankings in the search engines and with local search.
