a. All biz info: Name, Address, Phone (NAP) and email
b. Claim it
c. Use all 5 categories if at all possible; make sure they’re the correct ones.
d. Create a keyword rich (non-spammy) description.
e. Include even more information in the “details” & “more details” sections
f. Be thorough, more is better for the user AND for the Google

2) About keywords – don’t look like a spammer. Leave them out of your biz name and categories
(unless you’re lucky enough to have them already included in your business name and correct
categories.)

a. No keyword stuffing either, especially in the description and details sections
b. Write for the user, not the search engines – you do want them to click through to your
site, don’t you?

3. Service area – an actual business location produces better SERPs compared to a service area

a. Best practice (at least for now) is to list your complete business address

4. Encourage reviews, solicit them from existing clients – they give Google some outside
verification and build trust for potential clients who find you.

5. Photos – especially one that scales to thumbnail size (85X60 pixels)

a. Videos too – think user experience and engagement
b. Use more than one if you’ve got them.

6. Citations – These are like backlinks from external sources

a. Discussion search + local keywords
b. Blog search + local keywords
c. Local Citation Finder Tool: www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder
d. Image results for competitors’ business name
e. Event Calendars, Sponsorships, Donations
f. Social Profiles w/ a local focus: Formspring, about.me, quora, twitter, FB, Hunch,
OpenForum, Slideshare, etc.
g. Cityname + business type + listings/business/results

7. Remember to verify your listing – easy to overlook, but very important to do.

If you’re reading this and would prefer to have it done for you, contact us – we would be glad to help.

Technorati Tags: Google Places, google places page, local website seo, search engine marketing service, search engine optimization

Step 1: Keyword Research
What keywords do you think your customers would type in to search for your products or services? A keyword can be one word (e.g. “optimisation”), but multiple keywords or keyword phrases are usually preferred, because they are more specific and more likely to be what your customers are looking for (eg. “Local Search Engine Optimization“).

Write down as many keywords/search phrases as you can think of. Brainstorm with your team. Think of alternative words. Consider geographical phrases if they are important to your customer (e.g. “house cleaning Seattle”). Also, get some ideas from your competitor’s websites. Try to make a list of 20-30 keyword phrases.

Choose the two keyword phrases you think would be searched for the most. But also remember, the more competition there is for a keyword, the harder it is to achieve top rankings. If you want to rank high in Google for the keyword “insurance”, you have a very long journey ahead. So try your best to select two keyword phrases that are the most relevant to you business but that are not vague nor competitive. It’s a good idea to have 2 or 3 words in each phrase (e.g. “wedding catering services”)

Once you’ve selected your two best keyword phrases the next step shows you how to make some improvements to your home page.

Step 2: Web Copy

Web copy refers to all the words or text on your website. Because content is king in the world of search engines, your keyword phrases need to be placed strategically on your web page to convince Google that your content is highly relevant to those keywords. The more prominent they are, the better. (Keep in mind that as important as search engines are, customers come first, so make sure your copy also reads well.)

Here’s how you can increase each keyword’s prominence:

1. Place your keywords in headings, preferably at the beginning of the heading;

2. Include keywords towards the top of the page;

3. Bold or italicize keywords where appropriate;

4. Instead of having a link to another page that says “Click here to read more “, reword it to include your keywords, e.g. “Read more about our Video SEO Services“.

5. Another important tip is to also include these keywords in your HTML “title tag”. Use your content management system to make these changes yourself, or perhaps ask your web developer to do it if you’re unsure how.

Once you have fine-tuned your home page, consider adding new content, such as detailed descriptions of what you offer, FAQs and informative articles about your products and services. (If you don’t want to write these yourself, they can be located for free on the internet – do a search for “articles directory”).

It’s also good to bear in mind that search engines can only read text, not pictures. Often web developers embed words in images to look better for website visitors or use Flash for animation, but this is a major impediment to search engines.

Step 3: Linking

Each link from another website to your website (not from within your website) is considered by search engines as a vote of popularity for your business and will improve your rankings.

But it is the quality, not quantity, of the links that is crucial. The other websites should be relevant to your industry, and preferably highly regarded themselves. Ten quality links count far more than 500 links from arbitrary websites. In the same way your personal business network can have a significant impact on the success of your business, so too the online network you build on the internet.

Brainstorm all the relevant websites that could link to you, such as non-competing companies, and industry bodies and organizations. Write a friendly email to each describing the benefit their visitors would get in knowing about your business, and request them to create a link to your website. Most people will not respond first time round, so a follow-up phone call is usually required.

How do I monitor my results?

Monitor your rankings in Google over the next few months by typing your chosen keywords into the search box, and recording your ranking. Also look at your hosting reports to understand what search terms your visitors are using to find your website.

The above process can be also be repeated for each page of your website. Remember to keep updating your content, and continually increase the number of links to your website.

As you see your rankings climb you should see a corresponding increase in web traffic and a substantial increase in sales enquiries. Be sure to record the source of your customer inquiries, so you can measure the success of your marketing efforts.

Remember, if you measure it, you can improve it.

Technorati Tags: better search engine rankings, guaranteed search engine rankings, improve search engine rankings, internet marketing, local website seo, pay per click company, ppc advertising company, search engine listing, search engine optimization, search engine rankings, SEO, SERP's, website ranking, website seo services

Search Engine Optimization uses a combination of techniques, tools, and technical know-how to get results. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a set of methodologies aimed at improving the visibility of a website in search engine listing. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves the careful optimization of corporate web sites to effectively increase their visibility in the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing, Ask, DMOZ, Alta-Vista,and many others. The higher a Web site ranks in the results of a search, the greater the chance that that site will be visited by a user.

ï Meta Tags
ï Navigational links
ï Rich Content

Meta Tags:

Meta Tags are very important for your website’s visibility. Many search engines read them from your site when you submit it to them .Major meta tags that you can use:

Meta Title
The only resource type that is currently in use is “document” This is the only tag that you need to put in for indexing purposes.

Meta Description
Depending on the search engine, this will be displayed along with the title of your page in an index. “content” could be a word, sentence or even paragraph to describe your page. Keep this reasonably short, concise and to the point.

Meta Keyword
Choose whatever keywords you think are appropriate, seperated by commas.

Navigational links:

At the right or at the bottom, but not on the left, of the page. When the search engines “read” your site, they read from the top left to the bottom right. Search engines place an emphasis on the first 100 words or text on the site. You do not want these words to be navigational links or Javascript. Ideally, you want to have your heading tags with your keywords in the beginning of your page. This being said, placing your links/JavaScript on the right or bottom of your page ensures the search engine spiders get to the text first, giving more weight to what’s important on your page.

Rich Content:

The more content you have on your site the more likely someone is to find what they’re looking for when they get there. Keep your site very content rich. Have a lot of pages.Update the site even twice a day if you have the time. Updating your site does not mean that you copy paste content from other sites.That will only push your rankings further down. Don’t have any duplicate content. At the same time ,dont spam multiple content across the same website. When a search engine views or reviews a website, which they do at least every few months, it looks for specific characteristics found in the content of website landing pages.

Technorati Tags: meta description, meta keyword, meta tags, Meta title, navigational links, search engine listing, search engine optimization, SEO, website ranking, website seo services, website visibility