We concentrate on SEO for Vancouver local business and our search engine optimization strategy follows a process that we've proven over the years. It's a conservative and achievable process; we look for the low hanging "keyword phrase fruit" that we can most easily get good rankings for.
Lately the best terms are local, geo-targeted terms. What are the advantages of this strategy? Why wouldn't you just want to target the highest traffic terms?
Here's what we typically see with a new client… They have a newer site, without a lot of links or good, solid SEO in place. They face some well established competition. They often do not have many pages of content, and rarely is there new content being added to the site regularly.
Some Of The Important Ranking Factors:
• Site Age
• Internal link structure on Site
• Amount of Links
• Relevance of Links and Link Text used
• Internal Links on Site
• Keywords optimized on site
• Freshness of site content
• Relevance of content supporting the theme of site
With a new site or a site that has not been search engine optimized, all of these ranking factors and more must be addressed in order to get better ranks. Your competitors have many of these ranking factors optimized for high traffic keyword terms.
To rank higher your site must do many of these ranking factors better, and better than the competition. It simply can take 6-9 months for that to happen.
Faster Ranking With Local Search
So a better strategy is to choose to optimize for both lower and higher traffic terms. That returns higher ranks for the less popular terms, sooner. Those lower volume search terms in turn can support the more competitive terms and you will begin to rank for those over the next while.
Targeting geographically targeted local keywords, you are…
• More likely to see a traffic increase
• Have a better return on investment for less money
• See results sooner
Targeting local keyword phrases especially works because:
• You have a limited budget
• The budget is not there for extensive link-building
• People entering a geo-targeted phrase (like Vancouver Cosmetic Surgeon) into search engines are high converting prospects
• People using these terms will need services right away
Geo-targeted terms gets more customers for you sooner. Local keywords support eventual higher rankings for more competitive, higher traffic keyword terms.
Less than 10% of companies are targeting geo-targeted local keyword terms. More marketing dollars are moving to SEO and competition for local keywords is growing. Geo-targeted local SEO is expanding fast. Get yours started right away.
Hopefully these tips have been helpful. What do you think?Filed under Blog, Local Search, SEO Ranking by . 
Google's Local Business Center was an interesting beastie when they debuted it in 2008. I started putting clients into it right away and was surprised to find them getting calls and doing a ton of business, almost immediately.
Get More Customers!
I noticed that many of the local "regular" SEO companies didn't do it or even recommend to clients to be there (that's changing).
I also noticed that this lack of interest was not the case in the US and UK, where the Local Business Center took off like a rocket. So after watching this happen and seeing the growth I decided to throw mon chapeau into the ring, and start an SEO company devoted almost exclusively to local search.
The key action to take to grow your local search results is getting listed in the Google Local Business Center. (I'd also recommend Yahoo and Bing — if they were doing this in Canada! They're not and so what? Google is 80+% of the search volume.)
Local Business Center Panel
10 Steps To Getting Your Local Business Into Google.
This is a free listing and it works like gang busters! To get the maximum benefit out of following these steps, there are some considerations before you get started at Google.
1. What's your business name? Google's TOS requires that you use your real legal business name in your listing. Have a DBA? That's good too. Here's the tricky bit. Does your business name describe what you do and is it what customers would put into a search for you?
Here's what I mean. You business is called "Thompson Automotive" and you do car repair; a mechanic shop. The problem with that for Google Local is that people don't search for "automotive" when they are looking to get their car fixed. They search for "automotive repair" or "car repair", etc. It would be best if your legal business name or DBA includes the best keyword phrase for your business niche. There's also extra value in putting your city name in your business name.
Your business name is most important ranking signal to get on the first page map for your business niche. Get our Free Keyword Research document and we'll provide you with your 5 top keywords!
2. Is your address a PO box? Thanks to a bunch of nitwits who tried to game the system, Google will not let you use a PO box. Get a real address for your business. This must match your address information on your website (put it at the bottom of every page), so change that and any other business listings you might have before you apply for your Google Local listing.
3. Do you have a local telephone number? This is another really important signal that Google uses to rank your listing. If all you have is an 800 number, we strongly recommend that you get a local number as well. Again update your website first.
4. Do you have photos of your business? You can put up to 10 photos on there. You should put all 10! Even if all you have is your logo and your grad picture, put them up there.
5. Do you have video of your business? You can put 5 videos up there and you should put up all 5! You'll have to upload them to YouTube (which is a great idea anyway!) If all you have is one, get it on there, and make arrangements to get more done and put them on later.
6. Do you have an email address that uses your website URL? If so, that's good. Again it looks more professional and Google will like it. For example, if your website address is http://www.thompsonautosrepair.com then your email address should be yourname@thompsonautosrepair.com.
7. You will have to write a business description, so be prepared. You want to use the keyword phrases that your customers use to find you, as well as using descriptive and persuasive sales copy. Include a positive review of your business in here.
8. Go to theGoogle Local Business Center and sign in with your Google account; or create one. It's free. Click the button to add a new business listing.
Fill in the required information as completely as you can as I've outlined above.
9. Categories… start entering and Google will auto-suggest some. If any of these fit, select that one. If not, put what best fits your business. Do I have to say keywords again? You can also choose multiple categories. Google let’s you choose up to five, and if there are really five for your business, use them all.
10. More details? Add your operating hours, types of payments, photos and videos of your business and other details. This is a "more is better" thing. More info helps potential customers decide to call you. You will also rank higher.
When you’re finished, click submit. Google will ask you to verify your listing by telephone call, SMS or postcard. For phone calls, be near your business phone as they call you at the telephone number you provided in your business listing and the computer tells you a PIN number. You can enter that on the screen.
If you’re not near or you have an answering service, click the postcard option and they’ll send you your PIN number via postcard. You enter it on the site and your done.
Once you’ve verified your local business, it should appear within Google’s search results within 12 hours. If it doesn't, give it a couple days and then head to the Google Support Forum to ask why it's being held up.
Here's the link to Google's tips on doing this. Want someone to do it for you? Our Local SEO Gold Package looks after this and much more.
Please comment below and let me know... I would really appreciate it.Filed under Blog, Local Search by .
Local SEO: Search Engine Optimization is abbreviated as SEO.
Local SEO is doing search engine optimization in a particular area – a local area.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process and actions of improving your website rank. Your rank or position is literally where you are listed on the page returned after someone searches for a relevant keyword. Increasing your rank can increase your traffic from the organic search results (SERPS) provided by the major search engines – Google, Yahoo, and Bing (MSN).
The promise of proper SEO is that it can get you into one of the hallowed top 3 positions, which get somewhere around 60% of all clicks. Clicks bring people to your website, and assuming (a big assumption…) that your website converts that traffic into customers, clicks mean more business.
Now, the real truth is that for globally competitive search terms; where you are competing with perhaps millions of other sites, getting a top 3 position is a long term task. As an example, let's pick a popular term like "diamonds." Google reports 51,000,000 websites are "about" diamonds. The top rated site is diamonds.com.
The competition for this search term is fierce! There are many, large companies that have whole teams of SEO experts working diligently on improving their search results. The reality is that, without the serious resources required, you simply cannot rank for this term.
Okay, but what about this Local SEO stuff?
Local SEO is about optimizing for local searches. That involves qualifying a search with a local term – continuing our example it would be "diamonds vancouver."
To compare, this local search has 1,040,000 competing websites. However, this comparison doesn't tell the whole story. Digging down into the results shows that, after the first page, there are numerous sites in the results that are… less relevant. There are far fewer competing websites, and the quality of those websites is lower. The competition is far, far less.
Ultimately for now, optimizing for Local Search makes it possible to get top 3 positioning for many search terms. This will not be the case in 2-5 years.
Combining the fact that people are searching for business information more and more; and that leads to more business for local businesses where there isn't as much SEO competition; means that this is the ideal time to start to optimize your website and lock in a top position.
Filed under Blog, Local Search by .