Local Search Engine Optimization to Increase Sales and Visits
Jack on November 15th, 2009Local search engine optimization is becoming one of the go-to services that many businesses are flocking to for their SEO needs. Many web users are looking for services and products within their local area every day, having your website on the top of these listings will increase sales and visitors. Local search engine optimization is important for your business so your customers can readily find you within their area. The following are some tips to increase your local SEO campaign.
Adding Your Website to Listing Directories
The first step in creating a great local search engine optimization plan is to add your website to the local listing directories offered by many search engines. Directories such as Google Local Business Center, Yahoo Local Business, Bing Local Listing Center, Small Business Directory (for UK) and Business Directory (UK) listings all offer great ways to add your website to local search results. Simply add company details, services and contact information to each of these sites and your website will begin to show in local search results when users include a keyword + your area.
Google Local Business Center
http://www.google.com/local/add/analyticsSplashPage?gl=US&hl=en-US
Yahoo Local Business
Bing Local Listing Center
https://ssl.bing.com/listings/
Yellow Pages
Add a Great Video
Adding a video to YouTube will also help you gain high ranking local search results. By using correct titles, keywords, descriptions and linking strategies, a great YouTube video which informs the viewer and creates a call to action will drive additional visitors to your website. Creating a video is very easy with many great cameras and software readily available. Your YouTube video could be simple things such as customer reviews and testimonials, a walkthrough of your store or product overviews of what you have to offer. YouTube videos optimized for local search will appear in search results, adding great power to your search engine optimization.
Local Ad Campaigns
Although you may not want to spend additional money to promote your business, especially in these hard economic times, local online ad campaigns are a cheap way to bring traffic to your website. Because highly specific keywords based on local search terms cost a fraction of highly competitive keywords, a local ad campaign has the potential to be a very cheap and effective way to drive traffic. Additionally, targeting local search keywords in your adword campaigns will appear in top results for users search on your terms.
Using these three local search engine optimization strategies will be a great addition to your SEO campaign. Users searching for local business and services are already likely to buy because they are looking for specific keywords and somewhere they can go. By catching these local users when they search will help you boost sales and visitors to your website.
5 Killer Tips to Create Quality Content for SEO
Jack on October 26th, 2009Content, as the cliché goes, is king. Although ‘Content is King’ has been used over and over again across almost every blog about SEO, it still holds the crown. Without creating quality content for your website or blog, all of your SEO efforts will be worthless as your visitors find nothing of value. The following is 5 killer tips to create great content for your on-page search engine optimization.
1. Create an engaging title
The first thing a visitor sees when they land on your page from the search engine should be a title which pops out at them and tells them exactly what they should expect. Web users scan a page before reading the content, starting with the title. If your page title doesn’t grab the attention of the user within the first few moments, they are unlikely going to finish reading the article due to the lack of interest.
When creating a title, include action words to excite the visitor to continue reading. Titles should convey a promise to the reader, that the following information is as good as the title and they need to continue below and to find out why. Think of titles as sales copy, you want to entice the reader with what you have to offer them and give them an underlying call to action to look at your content.
The reason why a title is great for search engine optimization is that search engine spiders use the tags surrounding the title to help weigh the importance of the content of the page. The title should be both descriptive and have a great hook to capture the reader, gaining you more visitors and relevance on the subject.
2. Create content that sells
Killer content is what makes a great website. You could do all of the link building and Search Engine Optimization tricks you have up your sleeve but if you don’t have quality content, the visitor will feel that the page has no importance to them and leave for a site that does. When creating your content, try to get into the mind of what your reader wants to hear, not what you want to tell them.
Content should fill the need of the reader; wither it being helpful information or just entertainment. The content on your page should be thoroughly covered as well as engaging to the reader, keeping them hooked every word of the page. Your main goal of creating great content is to make them feel so satisfied that they either make an action on the page or share it with others.
Great content that is shared on the internet becomes more relevant to search engines than pages which do not offer worthwhile information. A single well written article has the potential to bring you thousands of visitors just from being shared on social networks. As your page gains more views, the higher it will rank in search engines helping your search engine optimization efforts.
3. Interlinking
Content on your pages should also offer the reader the chance to look at more information on your website. Interlinking keywords and talking points helps guide your reader to other portions of your website, increasing your page views and giving you a higher search engine rank. Search engines reward websites with accurate and relevant interlinking to their readers, something that should be utilized for on-page search engine optimization.
4. Bulleted Lists
When creating your content, using large blocks of text becomes redundant and harsh on the reader. With the attention span of mere seconds, users predominantly scan content to pick up on keywords that fancy their minds. Creating a bulleted list has many benefits:
- Bulleted list attract attention
- You can display important information
- It allows the reader to take a short break
See how the content breaks from the normal paragraphs of text and catches the eye? Bulleted lists are great to attract attention to specific talking points you want to make sure they read. Even if a user scans through a page, they are likely to look at a bulleted list because it stands out.
5. Images
Although the web is almost completely made of text, images are very important for your posts. Because people have been exposed to an abundance of media such as television, magazines, photos and more, they come to expect to see some sort of image on a web page. Breaking the flow of your content with images helps loosen the weight that a single page of text creates.
It’s equally important to use title and alt attributes when placing images in your content. Search engines cannot see what the image is and relies on the title and alt image to accurately index the object. Always use very descriptive title and alt tags on each of your images to help with SEO and usability.
As you have read, creating quality content should be the number one effort of any person looking to increase their search engine optimization. Content is the reason why people visit your page, all the SEO in the world will not help your website if the content is dreadful and uninspiring. Filling your website with great content will increase your readership and relevance on the subjects you discuss. Effectively planning, research and implementing content is the best advice for creating a high ranking website.
