Posts Tagged ‘local SEO’

Should You Write About Local Events On Your Blog?

Monday, July 18th, 2011

One of the ways to ensure that your website ranks well for local geo-phrases is to write about local events and places, but you have to be careful how you do it. If your blog is for a local brick and mortar business that is trying to attract customers from within a specific geographic area, then one way to “humanize” that blog is to write about the people and places in your area – in a good way, of course.

First and foremost, you want to build good will with the people in your community. One way to do that is with customer spotlights, or feature stories.

Look at your local newspaper to see how this is done. Most community newspapers devote a part of their story space each issue for local features. These usually include a photo with a write up of a local person. It can be a celebrity, a person in the community who is active in real social work or community improvement, or it can be someone who is doing, or has done, something extraordinary.

Here are five different types of stories about people in your community that you could write for your blog no matter what product or service you offer:

  • Someone who has used your produce or service in an unusual way or who has done something extraordinary with your product or service.
  • As a community service, you could highlight people in your community that you think are performing a valuable service to the community. It could be a business person, a politician, or a community organizer.
  • If you have a prospective customer profile, choose someone who fits your target group but who is not a customer and ask them to try your product for free, then solicit their feedback and report it with brutal honesty.
  • You can also write up a personality profile of your 100th customer for the day, or think up another fun event where one person can be a winner and just write up a 300-500 word personality profile on the person telling who they are, what they do for a living, what their hobbies are, etc. Expect nothing in return for this. It’s a fun community service idea.
  • Hold a contest. Write about the winner on your blog.

There are more ways to use local people and organizations to geotarget your blog. These are just a few fun ways.

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Posted in Local Internet Marketing | 3 Comments »

Are You Local, Global, Or Does It Matter?

Monday, July 11th, 2011

The moment you decide to put a website online, you’ll have to make a few decisions. It doesn’t matter if your website is an extension of your off line business or if it is a standalone entity. You’ll still need to make the same decisions (an extension of an off line business may actually have a few more to make). One of the decisions you’ll have to make is whether or not your Web business is local, global, or if it even matters.

If you are local, you’ll spend a good deal of your time marketing your website in very specific ways:

  • Online Yellow Pages
  • Local directories
  • Off line

Just to name a few.

But what if your business is global?

Global online businesses have specific marketing plans as well, but it’s actually a little more difficult to plan for local online marketing. That’s because there are certain things you have to consider that you wouldn’t necessarily consider for a global brand. However, it might take you longer to achieve search engine traction for your global brand.

You’ll have to figure out how local search will play into your overall SEO initiatives. And you’ll have to figure out how social media will play a part in your online marketing as well.

When you run a local online business, consider how you will find your customers using local online marketing tactics. It’s not as easy as you’d think.

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Posted in Local Internet Marketing | 6 Comments »

What Factors Affect Local Search Rankings?

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

When it comes to ranking your web pages for local search traffic, it’s easy to assume that the same factors affecting global search rankings will also affect local search rankings, but that may not be the case. Certainly, I think on-page content is one factor, and inbound links, to a certain degree, are also a factor. But what else can be a factor?

It seems obvious – at least to me – that local links are more valuable than what are generally termed “relevant” links. In other words, if you are a local real estate broker, a link from your Chamber of Commerce will likely carry more weight than a link from a national real estate website.

I also believe Web citations could prove a factor as well. A Web citation is any place off of your own website that mentions your business, web address, or Local business listing information without an accompanying link.

So how can a non-link affect your search rankings? If you’ve claimed your business listing in Google Places, Bing Local, and Yahoo! Local, then the search engines know your business address and phone number. They also know some other basic information about you. If that information also appears on another website – say, your local Chamber of Commerce or BBB website – then it adds a level of credibility to your business. A link isn’t necessary.

So here’s my tip for today. If you are a local business trying to rank better for your search terms and a geographical targeting metric, see if you can get a few local Web citations, with or without a link.

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Posted in Local Internet Marketing | 6 Comments »

Are You Getting Bad Real Estate SEO Advice?

Sunday, March 20th, 2011

Hat tip to Matt McGee for bringing this to my attention, but I have long thought that real estate agents and brokers were getting bad SEO advice. Specifically, an article on the National Association of Realtors’ website tells real estate agents what to do, but I wouldn’t trust it completely.

In a nutshell, the article encourages real estate agents to focus on one task per week, then in six week’s time they will be on their way to increased Web visibility. That’s not bad advice. In fact, I agree with it. It’s when the article gets into the nitty gritty details that there is a problem.

The six tasks recommended by NAR are these:

  1. Writer better page titles
  2. Broadcast your links
  3. Use keywords generously
  4. Reword outgoing links
  5. Develop a site map
  6. Tweet about it

OK, the truth? That’s a mediocre list. Not great. Not bad. Just so-so. There are other things I’d recommend for SEO. I mean, for example, Twitter is a great marketing tool. As you know, I use it. But for SEO, I wouldn’t recommend it. I’d rather see you start a blog or list your website in local directories. That makes more sense from an SEO perspective.

The advice the NAR gives on page titles isn’t bad, but it leaves the impression that you can have the same page title on all of your Web pages. And I’ve seen real estate websites that do that. That’s a big no-no. You want to make sure all of your Web pages have separate and individual page titles.

I like what Matt McGee had to say about NARs blog comment advice:

Commenting on blogs can help with exposure, but it’s not a “campaign” and isn’t likely to make a search engine think your site is trustworthy, either. Worse, it’s something that too many people overdo and get wrong. A lot of real estate agents dropping links on each other’s blogs only adds to the perception that the entire industry is one big spam-fest.

I completely agree with Matt on that point. Blog comments are good for getting you exposure, but remember that you are really just exposing yourself to readers of other real estate blogs. If they’re not local blogs, those blog comments are real low value for you.

Ditto on Matt’s keyword density advice. Keyword density has been bad SEO advice for almost ten years.

On outgoing links, NARs advice is partially good. In terms of SEO, outgoing links do provide a little extra keyword nutrition for your site, but only in moderation. You are really helping the other site more than your own, so ask yourself this question: Am I linking out to my competition? If so, then don’t use the best anchor text. A non-keyword related phrase would be better. Even better than that, however, is not to link to the competition. Sometimes, a call to action that is not keyword-specific can get you a click through. Affiliate links, for instance – what’s more important, ensuring you help your affiliates SEO their website or ensuring you get a click through and a sale? (See the “I use it” link above as an example.)

If you are a real estate agent, your best bet is to focus on local SEO. Period. NARs advice seems more pertinent for global SEO, but I know of few real estate agents that operate on any basis other than local. When you’re ready for solid local real estate SEO advice, your best bet is to go with someone who is an SEO and Internet marketing speicalist.

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Posted in SEO for Small Business | No Comments »

The Best Way To SEO Your Site For Local Traffic

Wednesday, July 8th, 2009

There is no one who knows as much about local SEO as Matt McGee. This post on SEOing your site for local traffic proves it. At the heart of local SEO is ensuring that your site visitors know how to find you and to do that you need to include local place names on your website. The best place to do that is on your About page or, if you have one, your Directions page. Specifically, Matt recommends:

  • Including your business’s exact address
  • Repeat your street name, city name, and state a couple of times
  • Use both your state name spelled out and the postal abbreviation
  • Mention your specific neighborhood name
  • Use a local landmark

Those are all great suggestions and the example that he uses to illustrate it is this:

XYZ Widgets is located in the Shadow Trails Shopping Center on 4th Avenue in the North Hills area of Happyville, Washington. Our address is 425 4th Avenue, Suite 201, Happyville, WA, 99999.

Additionally, you can include a graphic map pointing out exactly how to find your place as well. You can use Google Maps or the widget that he talks about in his blog post, but I’d recommend a strip map similar to one that you’d draw on a napkin to show people how to find you. Make sure that you label the streets on the map and put a big star, X, or other symbol on the map to show precisely where you are located in relation to local landmarks. Make sure you label your map with a locally SEOd alt tag.

If your business is a rural business then you might include your county or parish and/or township name as well. Include as many details as you can think of to help people know exactly where your business is located. If your main entrance is in the back of the building then include that information in a fashion similar to this:

Use the back entrance facing Canal Street. There is parking on the side of the building near Lake Avenue. Please DO NOT use the front door, which faces Demolition Boulevard.

If you use those kinds of clear descriptions on your Directions page then people will find you much easier and you’ll be SEOing your website for local terms. Also, include your street address in the footer of every page on your website. That will also go a long way to giving you strong local SEO.

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Posted in SEO for Small Business | 2 Comments »