Local Search Engine Optimization
Getting found on the front page of Google, Bing, Yahoo and the other major search engines should be your aim if you want to DOMINATE your local market.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO), or Local SEO as applied to local small businesses, is the process that can do this for you. Your business can feature prominently for the keyword phrases that people are typing into the search engines, IF you have a site that is set up to do so AND IF the keyword phrases you are targeting are not overly competitive.
Local Search results "ten pack"
For example getting on the front page for “Hotels San Jose” is much more difficult than “Interior Design Santa Clara”.
The good news about getting your site high up the search results is that the traffic you get to your website is FREE and it is HIGHLY TARGETED, so that you are much more likely to convert a person specifically looking for your products and services in your local area, than if they just stumbled on your website.
Search Engine Optimization is what gets you on the left hand side of the search results (excluding the map area and list of local businesses – which is a different process known as Local Search or Local SEO).
It’s important to understand that SEO is not a black and white process. It’s not that your website is either Optimized or Not Optimized, rather it is the degree as to how much better your site is than your competitors according to the mysterious factors that Google and the other search engines think are important. The bad news is they change the rules almost everyday.
The good news is that by following some basic principles and working with professionals like us who stay on top of what changes are happening that you can give yourself the best chance.
It’s for this reason that you want to be very careful about the fine print with people ‘Guaranteeing Front Page Results” as none of us have absolute control over the outcome unless it is an uncompetitive term and even then you can fall down the results as others try get ahead of you.
So to give yourself the best chance here are some of the key things:
- A well laid out website structure that makes it easy for the Search Engines to read your site and recognize that what you are offering is a good match for the people searching
- Good natural content with appropriate use of keywords in the domain name, titles, headings and other key parts of your website…too much and you get dumped down the search results for ‘keyword stuffing’…too little and you don’t let the search engines know what you are offering
- Fresh content and interactions from visitors. The search engines get smarter and smarter everyday and are looking to see which sites deliver updated content like blogs and give them an extra push up the results
- External links from other sites to yours. The Search Engines treat links as a vote of confidence in your site. This is one of the most important factors and if you only do the first two, then you are likely to have competitors jump over the top in time. Please Note: Getting links from the wrong types of sites they can penalize you.
A Cagorabiz Blog Site combined with the backlinking that comes with the Community Marketing Traffic system is a simple way of making that happen.
The Local Search Dominator (Premium) gives you a great start and for more competitive markets the Ultra Premium package with the Community Marketing System all set up for you with backlinks is about as simple and cost effective way of dominating your market.
