If your website doesn’t possess a very good placement in the rankings then it may be hard, if not impossible, to find.

Considering that the majority of searchers simply click on the first couple of results, you want to make certain that your web site is ranked highly enough so that people can easily discover it on the very first page of search engine results.

Although no search engine optimization firm can guarantee a high rankings for your site forever, often times hiring a web marketing business will pay off many times over. For those of you performing your SEO yourself or those of you that would like to help ensure your marketing firm is doing the things that really matter, here are some tips for raising the search engine rankings of your website.

Optimize your web site for your target audience, not the search engines. Think of exactly what impression your web site gives your users—you’ll create a significantly better site the search engines will love.

Produce compelling content for pages of your site based on your chosen keyword phrases. Pick out a couple keyword phrases that apply towards the certain page you’re writing and work those phrases into the copy.

Incorporate your keyword phrases into each page’s unique title tag. Title tags are given significant weight with search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. The title tag is the text shown in the engines search results, so it’s crucial that it be alluring, not just crammed with keywords and phrases.

Make certain your website is link-worthy. Search engines like Google and Yahoo judge a site’s popularity by the number of links pointing to it. Generate great content people will wish to hyperlink to. It’s a must for your link building efforts to offer things worth linking to.

Don’t be hitched to any one keyword or phrase. Optimize for all of the relevant key phrases. If you can rank high for a good percentage of them, they’re going to add up to a lot more than just that one particular keyword phrase that you think is the big money one.

Keeping these five tips in mind when optimizing your website and you’ll be on your way to getting much better rankings and a lot of organic (free) traffic.

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Expert

5 Tips To Raise Your Rankings

There has been a lot of speculation going on over Google’s announcement late in 2009 that load times of a page will become a relevant factor in ranking web pages.

If you haven’t heard all the scuttle-butt the articles below should get you up to speed.

Page Speed May Become a Ranking Factor in 2010
I would say that based on Matt’s comments it is probably fair to assume that Google will indeed begin taking page speed into consideration as a ranking factor, although he doesn’t come right out and say that they definitely will. …

Will Google Make Page Speed a Ranking Factor
Google is obsessed with speed. A tremendous amount of corporate energy is being put into initiatives to speed up the web. Googles Lets make the web…

What do you think? Is speed really a factor when it comes to rankings?

I personally don’t think so. With unique content and link building factors being the bread and butter of “true’ results I find it hard to believe that the load time of a page will have any real effect on the serp’s.

Worried about your load time?

GTmetrix – A New Tool For Google’s Speed Factor
GTmetrix is a free tool that provides in depth information on the speed of pages on your site and what you can do to improve load time.

Sure, page speed plays a role and is important when it comes to the user’s experience but when it comes to displaying relevant search results speed is not a factor.

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Expert

Google’s Speed Ranking Factor

As more consumers go online and use major search engines to find local businesses, local merchants have to supplement their advertising strategy. While it used to be enough to take out an ad in the local phone book, such as the Yellow Pages, now local merchants also have to consider SEO.

Although this seems like an overly complicated strategy for the average mom-and-pop, it’s not. First of all, you don’t even need a website to rank locally (which cuts costs considerably). Secondly, ranking locally is much different than ranking nationally/internationally, meaning that it can be much less competitive and, therefore, much more cost-effective.

The 10 Pack

The most important part of localized search result is “the 10 Pack.” This is the first set of results that appear alongside a Google map whenever you search for a certain kind of local business. Since the 10 Pack can include anywhere form 3-10 results, it monopolizes much of the SERP real-estate above the fold, making it considerably more impactful than the second and third results. You need to get into the 10 Pack. There are both onsite and offsite elements that your business can leverage to rank in the 10 Pack.

Offsite Factors for Local SEO

Because you don’t even need a website to rank in 10 Pack, offsite factors carry a lot of weight in local SEO. These include: verified local business listings, citations and offsite references, local directory listings, customer reviews, and backlinks with the right anchor text.

Search Engine Business Listings: the first thing to do for local SEO is make sure that you have a map listing with the Google Local Business Center. Not only is it free, but anyone can create one. So if you haven’t created one already, check if someone else has. If one already exists, revise it to include the terms you want to rank for. If one does not exist, create one that includes all those key terms.

Citations: it’s also important to have as many offsite references as possible. this includes getting mentioned on community blogs and other local business sites. If there aren’t any offsite references to your business, reach out to the webmaster and find out how to get mentioned. And if you have a site, see if they will link to you. If you don’t have a site, see if they’ll link to your Google Local Business Center.

Local Directory Listings: just because directories like the Yellow Pages aren’t the only game in town anymore, that doesn’t mean that they’re not important. By having a listing in the online editions of these directories, you can increase the odds of ranking in the 10 Pack. Just make sure to place your listing in the right category, otherwise you can end up ranking for terms that aren’t relevant to your services.

Other Verified Listings: although the 3 major search engines all have their own business listings, they also get data from sites such as Acxiom, infoUSA, and Localeze. So you want to get your business info listed with third party sites, as well. Just make sure that your business info is consistent across all sites, because Google can interpret inconsistent listings as different businesses. Some of the more reputable online local directories include:

• SuperPages
• CitySearch
• Yelp
• InsiderPages
• BizJournals
• AreaConnect
• MagicYellow
• and SwitchBoard

Customer Reviews: once you have a Google Local Business Center listing, you’re going to need reviews. The more reviews you have, the more that Google will see your business as relevant for the keywords you’ve targeted in that review. So reach out to colleagues and customers about leaving such a review. But do not try to write 20 reviews yourself. If Google flags you as spam, there’s a good chance that it’ll hurt your rankings. Google will also pull local business reveiws from all over the web, so reach out to local bloggers and communities about getting reviews there, as well.

Because of the importance of reviews in local search optimization, you should use your site to build trust. First, devise a way to encourage happy customers to generated positive reviews. Second, link to your map listings so that Google has some indication that that listing is relevant to your business. And then, get links from local trust sites, such as the Better Business Bureau and any local chambers of commerce.

Backlinks: finally, whether you’re building links back to your site or your business listing, you want to pay attention to the anchor text of those links. While traditional SEO dictates that you want keyword sensitive anchor text, in local SEO, you want that anchor text to actually be the name of your business.

Onsite Optimization for Local SEO

If you do have a company website, there are also a number of things you can do to help enhance your local SEO efforts. First, make sure that your business name is in all your title tags. Second, having a domain name that includes your business name will also enhance your local ranking.

Finally, have a page that includes the address and telephone number of your business. The info on this page should also be consistent with your other listings on the web. For example, if you have separate phone numbers for tracking purposes, that can hurt your local rankings. So if you can’t avoid having different tracking numbers, try to keep them restricted to pages that you can tell Google not to index, such as PPC landing pages.

Think Global, Act Local

As Google continues to personalize search results, localized data is going to become more and more important. The web is evolving from local users getting worldwide answers to global users getting local answers. This is why local SEO is more about optimizing for locations, and less about optimizing for keywords.

What you should be focusing on to get included in the 10 Pack, then, is having your business info appear in multiple locations, and making sure that that info is consistent. And when building links back to your site or reviews, those backlinks need to have a strong geographic scent. Finally, because local search is about people searching for local answers, customer reviews are very important. So if you have a site, use it to build trust and encourage users to leave reviews.

Many local businesses are still unaware of local SEO. So by optimizing now, you can put yourself in a position to dominate the 10 Pack for years to come. After all, if your site is super relevant today, it’s easier to convince Google that it’s still relevant in several years when it’s still in business, and still serving its community.

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Expert

Ranking Locally: Optimizing for the 10 Pack

Did you know a companies online reputation can be destroyed before they even have a chance to claim their listing?

It’s true. Some even resort to what could be considered black-hat tactics to control their competitors as Tod Minzt talks about in his article a Fresh Look At Local Search Ranking Factors. His third review is crazy stuff!

I’m what’s called a WhiteHat SEO guy thus when I optimize sites I practice ethical strategies. None of that crapped mentioned in the third point of Tod’s article. I watch my reader everyday looking for trusted information about local search and SEO in general and today I ran across 2 WhiteBoard Friday video presentation at SEOmoz. I’ve broken down the videos and posted the time line in the video for specific information.

Local Business Center

This video covers all the things you should know as a business owner and getting your listing included into local search.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – Local Search Inclusion with David Mihm from Scott Willoughby.

1:00 – Local Business Center. Adding your business to local search.

4:36 – Other crucial sites to list your business on.

Optimizing For Local Search

In this videos below David Mihn and Randy Fishkin cover the simply steps to optimizing your local search. Tweaking  just a few things will get you better results.

SEOmoz Whiteboard Friday – SEO for Local Search from Scott Willoughby.

1:21 – Getting your business name associated with your contact information.

3:15 – Categories

5:24 – Location. Being on a geographical website.

6:10 – Reviews. Volume over ratings.

7:29 – See what matters

9:00 – Citation is the new link

The local listings are far more important than most SEO’s realize but many services are simply overlooking local search.

Are you or your SEO firm doing these things for your website?

If you own a business and you haven’t claimed your business listing yet then do one thing; do a search on Google. If your business is listed CLAIM it before someone else does. If your not listed add your listing.

See ya in local search!

Post from: Denver SEO - Local Search Expert

SEO Tactics For Local Search