• Chicago Pizza
• Cincinnati Wine store
• St. Louis Dairy
• Bethesda Chiropractor
• Bethesda Maryland Lawyer
• etc…

One of the ways to do this is to create  search engine optimized anchor text. Here’s the difference between the most frequent form of links and the superior SEO anchor text:

Let’s say you’re me. And let’s say that I’m marketing on other sites (i.e., forums, blogs, or article distribution sites). When I have the chance to include a link back to my site, I could simply link like this:

Visit LocalSEMExperts.com

When search engines see this, they think: “oh, that LocalSEMExperts.com word points to http://localsemexperts.com”… and so my site gets a “vote” which contributes to my search engine ranking. That’s what most businesses do when linking back to their site.

BUT if I instead linked my website address to the phrase:

Visit the Maryland Internet Marketing Agency

… then I get the “vote” for the link back to my site PLUS the search engines associate my website with “Maryland Internet Marketing Agency” and I can begin to appear for that phrase, too. So next time someone types “maryland internet marketing” or “maryland marketing agency” into the search engines, I’m more likely to appear.

These custom anchor texts give your local business a very powerful way to target your business to your local clients. So, identify a few keyword phrases you want to be searchable for (usually your locale and a main keyword) and create anchor links with those as I’ve shown above.

If you don’t want to do this work yourself, please see our Local Domination Service Packages

1. Domain names… lots of domain names. McCarthy doesn’t say that having lots of domain names is a bad thing. In fact, it’s a good thing. But what you do with those domain names is the real key.

2. Spider blocking. I had no idea that this was as common as McCarthy suggests. Apparently, lots of businesses accidentally keep their website from being indexed because of some incorrect code. Easy to fix (and devastating if you don’t).

3. Expiring domains. This one makes sense. Google tends to rank sites higher if their domain name or SSL registration is set to expire soon. The thinking is: The longer a website is registered for, the better.

Local businesses can benefit by carefully navigating these SEO pitfalls. Read McCarthy’s article to find out how to make sure that local buyers can find you.

2. Build a free site using Google Sites. Yes, you’re not going to use this free site as your own business site. But why not create one that talks to your customers about their needs (and subtly promotes your organization through backlinks or a “brought-to-you-by” notice.

3. Sign up at Google’s Local Business Center. You can create and manage information about your site, locate your business on a map, and add information and coupons there for users to find. You’ll also be able to track online searches and other analytics about your business. (Click here and watch the video).

These three strategies are free and can profoundly impact the traffic that arrives at your website… and at your front door.

If you don’t want to do this work yourself, please see our Local Domination Service Packages.

Here is a great example of someone who did just that with the phrase “video SEO in Google”.

Why is video such a great opportunity? Search engines are designed to search written content — words — for clues to index things. In a page of 500 words, the search engine might make its indexing decision by looking for keywords that amount to only 2% to 4% of the total words on the page.

But a video can’t be searched in the same way. So search engines rely on far less information (through descriptions, tags, and perhaps outgoing links) to indicate what the video is about. The density of information is far greater. It’s like fishing with dynamite instead of a hook and worm.

What does for local businesses? You may not want to search for a broad term like “restaurant” or “plumber”. But you can still search pretty high with far more local terms — like “Miami plumber” or “Cincinnati restaurant” — using video.

Video gives good SEO benefits, but it also is a nice way to give a personal touch (which is one major reason why people buy from local vendors).

If you don’t want to do this work yourself, please see our Local Domination Packages.

The bottom line for Google was a very website-searcher-centric idea: Put the most authoritative sites first. The more authoritative it was, the higher it should rank. (Which makes sense for internet users who are using search to find something).

They measured authoritativeness by a variety of factors, including keywords, backlinks, and more.

Rand Fishkin, SEOmoz‘s CEO, wrote a very compelling blog in which he talked about how Google’s rankings algorithm has changed over time. He even provided a handy chart which shows an estimation based on Fishkin’s experience and observations.

Essentially, he says that authoritativeness is still key at Google and they measure 4 basic things:

• The authority of the domain
• Anchor text
• Keyword usage
• Backlinks

View his chart below and read the blog post here.

Learn how search engine optimization (SEO) has changed

In some cases, searching well for specific keywords might not be easy for you but, chances are, you have plenty of space to actively target (and achieve) Google top ten ranking on your own name or business’ trade name.

It’s easy to do once you find the right keywords to target. And, in Lisa Barone’s blog on SmallBizTrends.com, she outlines seven easy steps to help you own your top ten spots on Google. Read Barone’s tips about search engine marketing.

I’ll briefly summarize the article and build on it here:

In her first action step, she recommends that you buy your own .com. I’d suggest that you might also consider buying your own .net and .org and creating different content there. (For example, many companies use their .com website as their business website and their .net site as a separate site talking about their company.) Or, use .com for your business and .net for your blog.

In her second and third action step, she recommends that you sign up for various professional directories and social sites, including LinkedIn, Naymz, Twitter, and more. I’d suggest that you might consider going to this Wikipedia list of social networking sites and hitting all of the ones that are important to you. She also recommends that you keep these profiles active, which can take a lot of time. Fortunately, we’re seeing an increasing number of places where you can consolidate this work, including PeoplePond.

Her third, fourth, fifth, and sixth recommendations are sound ideas and things I would have recommended as well. (Read them here.) Her seventh recommendation – to find local speaking opportunities because they often come with a bio – surprised me. I think it’s an interesting take and I like the local search engine marketing aspect of it, of course. I think there might be other local opportunities, as well, including local forums. So if you’re an Maryland business looking for specific Maryland search engine marketing, you can take advantage of this opportunity by bringing in local keywords.

Barone’s article is good, and a must read for any business that has wondered how to achieve a Google top ten ranking. Barone says: “own them all!”