This Simple SEO Step Can Dramatically Improve Search Engine Placement for Your Local Business

Let’s say that you run a small business and you want your website to appear in searches for your local keyword. For example…

• 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

Local Google AdWords Recommended

Read a great article in the New York Times. In their Small Business section, they offer a really basic guide on Google AdWords. Most of the article is fairly basic stuff that many people already know. But I was particularly intrigued (and pleased) with the eighth paragraph, which reads:

Focus on Local Markets
“When Apple first introduced the iPhone, Matt McCormick, who runs a phone-repair business called Jet City Devices, saw an opportunity. Knowing that the iPhone’s screen was prone to damage, Mr. McCormick began bidding on keywords like “iphone repairs” and waited for business to flood in. A problem soon became apparent: while his site was swamped with traffic, very few people were actually mailing in their phones to get them repaired. But, after changing his campaign to run only on searches initiated within 50 miles of Chicago and Seattle — cities where he had physical shops where customers could drop their phones off in person — Mr. McCormick says his conversion rate jumped to 10 percent: ‘If you’re in business in only one or two cities, then Google’s localization feature can save you a ton of money, reduce AdWords competition, and bring great traffic.’“

(From the New York Times article “Real Life Lessons in Using Google AdWords“).

This is a great example of local Google AdWords in action. A broad category like “iphone repairs” would get all kinds of clicks from everywhere. But a narrower target — through the use of a local keyword ”bethesda iphone repairs” – would lower the number of clicks but dramatically increase the conversion rate. In short, adding a local modifier to your Google AdWords can reduce your costs but increase your revenue.

Check out out our pay per click search ad services and local organic search domination services.

Stake Your Claim in Google’s Top Ten Rankings

Maryland search engine marketing
Hey Maryland business owners. Have you staked your claim? The Google “top ten” is the brass ring of internet marketing. How many of those spots do you own?

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!”