Implementing SEO terms into web content seamlessly takes practice. Inexperienced writers will highlight words and use keyword search terms that seem out of place in the text. This can detract from the quality of your website. People are wary of websites that use bright bold texts and hard sell advertising, but people appreciate authenticity and simple, straightforward information. Using SEO terms in a simple, straight forward manner is an effective way to promote your website and get traffic.

You may be wondering how you can determine what SEO keyword search people are using. The best way to figure this out is to come up with a list of terms you would use if you were looking to come across a website (like the one you plan to create) with the information you need. Once you have created a list you can consult a program like Google AdWords Keyword Tool to see how many searches the terms you have are getting. Keywords that have a high number of searches are typically popular SEO terms. If you use popular SEO terms, then you can be sure that others are using them as well. This means more competition between your website and other sites with similar content as yours.

You generally want to choose SEO terms that have a lower amount of competition and that are as specific as possible. This can be a difficult median to reach, but is necessary to get the traffic you need to your website.

This concept could be visualized as a fisherman on a large lake dropping hooks on the far reaches of the lake hoping to hook a fish.  In my opinion wouldn’t it seem more important just to drop a line where the fish are? Of course that begs the question:  How do you know where the fish are?

The truth is the fish are all around you if you know where to look.  They are on Facebook, Twitter, they’re online looking in local search directories.  They’re typing in to their search engine “your city name” and “your business category “and if you’re not showing up in the search engine results, your being overlooked.

This is where thinking differently about your marketing, or  Local Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can help.  If you have a catering business in Tucson AZ then being ranked for the term “Arizona Catering” in general is not that helpful.  For example if your business is in Tucson and someone from Flagstaff AZ finds you chances are you’re not going to get the call anyway as the customer is most likely looking for someone local anyway.   If however your website appears under the search term “Tucson Catering” and your business happens to do catering in Tucson you’re going to get a call.

In summary, rather than trying to set up your business’ website to attract hits based on non local search terms you should be thinking hyper-local.  You may even work to optimize your website to be found for a particular suburb of your city.    This does mean however that you want your business to be found in both the” city search” and a “suburb of your city search” too you just never know how targeted your next customer may be looking.

As a business the Internet is no longer an option, you must start going where your customers are looking. Online, in the search engines. Get found there and get the business back that print media can no longer send.

In the past it has always been about eyeballs, there was no targeting, at least not in the sense we talk about today. If you were to advertise in the newspaper or on the radio you were advertising across a large region and you bought the ad based on eyeballs or listeners even if those people had no interest in your product or even if they just happened to be passing through town.

This is the model most small business owners are typically most familiar with. The web changes all of this.

Now, with local search taking a larger role in online search queries making sure you are found when people search for a service or product in Bing, Google, or Yahoo is more important than any newspaper ad someone could run. And one statistic says a lot as well, 80 percent of people in one survey reported searching online to research a product or service then going locally to buy it.

If your business cannot be found online then it is likely they are not going to your business to buy it.

With local search and hyperlocal targeting you can make sure that when people search for your business online that they find your web presence. Making sure your business shows up in the Google local listings (or Bing and Yahoo) is very important, but with people becoming even more targeted in their search making sure you show up at a neighborhood level in major metros and even in rural areas can be very important if someone is looking for a local service or restaurant.

It is not about having hundreds of thousands of people reading the newspaper and possibly seeing your ad with the web, on the web when someone searches in the search engines they know exactly what they are looking for which means if your business can get that traffic to your website then the conversion ratio is much higher than you may be used to in legacy methods of advertising.

By building your website in a way that attracts the people searching in your local area you can make sure that the customers you are looking for find you and not your competitor. These customers convert, you want them to be yours.

In the past advertising solutions have been about one thing, eyeballs. That is how people determined what they charged for their advertising product. The more eyeballs the better, right?

Well, local search engine optimization has changed that and turned it on its head. With the ability to optimize a website to show up in the search engine listings when people search for specific items in your local area you can receive higher converting visitors to your ad or website at a lower cost.

Why pay a newspaper thousands of dollars for an ad that you are not sure that anyone even cares about when for much less you can optimize your real estate website to be in the first page of Google search results when someone searches for the exact subdivision you are selling a house in.

With the economy, and especially real estate in a very tough downturn finding more cost effective, high converting, marketing solutions is very important. Being able to use local search engine optimization to target people searching for the exact location you are selling a property in is the best way.

If you are not thinking about this it is likely that your competitor is. With more and more people becoming more web savvy people are understanding that the search engines are not a technical subject anymore, they are your marketing tool. They have taken over for the newspapers and billboards of the past.

I you are interested in marketing your real estate website to the people searching for exactly what you are trying to sell then contact us for local search engine optimization.

In May, I began working with a Wedding Officiant in Buffalo, NY. Like most professionals, Sandra Hustead was using a non geo domain name for her primary business address. Sandra was kind enough to provide some articles for Local Expert’s wedding planning blog, so I decided to provide free SEO advice.

After a quick search on Google, I noticed that Sandra’s site was buried on page four in the search results for several key local search terms, commonly used by brides to find a wedding officiant. Cross referencing with GoDaddy, I found that both BuffaloOfficiant.com and BuffaloOfficiants.com were unregistered and available for Sandra to use as her primary online address. I sent Sandra this message:

“Sandra, I would register BuffaloOfficiant.com and BuffaloOfficiants.com and then build your site on this domain. My experience is if you provide quality content and link to this domain you should be able to secure the #1 position on Yahoo and Google whenever any bride searches for “Buffalo Officiant(s)”.

Sandra registered BuffaloOfficiants.com in May 2009. Tonight I did the same search on Google and was happy to see that Sandra’s site was #4 for the local search term “Buffalo Officiants”. While satisfied with the results, a quick scan of her Metatags indicated areas for quick improvement.

The current Metatags on BuffaloOfficiants.com:

<title>Welcome</title><meta name=“Keywords” content=“buffaloofficiants, officiants, weddings, marriage, services, non-denominational, minister, officiant, local officiants, ceremonies,civil,service” /><meta name=“Description” content=“I am available to perform your wedding ceremony in WNY. I absolutely love what I do!” />

This evening, I suggested changing the Metatag for BuffaloOfficiants.com to:

<title>Buffalo Officiant Sandra Hustead specializes in non-denominational wedding ceremonies</title><meta name=”Keywords” content=”buffalo officiants, officiants, weddings, marriage, services, non-denominational, minister, officiant, local officiants, ceremonies, civil, service” /><meta name=”Description” content=”Buffalo wedding officiant available to perform your wedding ceremony. I absolutely love what I do!” />

We can track Sandra’s progress and see if her site rises in the search results for the local search terms “buffalo officiants”, “buffalo officiants”, “buffalo wedding officiant”, and “buffalo wedding officiant”.

By changing to a geo domain, Sandra was able to rise from the back pages to the first page. Now, changing the meta-tags to provide better targeting, should help her achieve top billing in her local market.

Have you ever watched “The Amazing Race” on CBS? The reality show features two person teams racing around the world, performing a series of cultural tasks before they are given a clue to their next destination. During certain legs of the race, teams are given the option of pursuing a “Fast Forward” that will allow them to skip all tasks and go directly to the check-in station at the end of each leg. The “Fast Forward” doesn’t guarantee that the team will win the leg, but it gives the team who secures it a big advantage over the competition.

In Hyperlocal SEO, owning Geo Domains can give your business a significant leg up over the competition.

What are Geo Domains?

Geo Domains are domain names comprised of two subparts: A Geographic Name and either a Product, Service, or Piece of Content sought by internet users. Examples of Geo Domains include:

• WeddingsInBaltimore.com
• BaltimoreChiropractors.com
• MiamiPhotographer.me
• AtlantaNews.net
• TampaBayJobs.pro
• ChicagoRemodeling.TV

Why are Geo Domains Important?

Geo Domains are important because search engines, like Google and Bing, prefer legitimate businesses. Search engines recognize that domains, tied to high search terms, are valuable resources.  The more competitive the search term, the more valuable the geo domain. Owning a great Geo Domain implies that your business is legitimate and worthy of strong consideration.

In your market, there could be hundreds of competitors all vying for top placement. If you are a Chiropractor in Baltimore, and a user searches for “Baltimore chiropractors”, Google must decide which 10 Baltimore chiropractor sites to display to the user.   To determine which Chiropractor sites are more important than other Chiropractor sites, each search engine uses a proprietary set of rules to filter the results.

One rule common to all search engines, is that a well constructed site, built on top of a geo domain, will rank higher than the same site located at a non geo domain name. In our example, a site located at BaltimoreChiropractors.com will have an excellent chance of displaying at the top of the search results for “Baltimore chiropractors”.  Why?  The answer is that only one chiropractor in Baltimore can own BaltimoreChiropractors.com. Since you had the foresight or resources to acquire this valuable domain name, then your business is viewed as more legitimate than a competitor who is targeting the same local search term.

Dot Com domains are not the only domains preferred by the major search engines. While BaltimoreChiropractors.com and BaltimoreChiropractors.net see the greatest SEO benefit, over time, sites built on alternative extensions like BaltimoreChiropractors.pro, BaltimoreChiropractors.me, or BaltimoreChiropractors.TV can take advantage of Google and Bing‘s preference for geo domains.

Many people have not used Geo Tags but now that local search is forcing more businesses into utilizing their web presence more effectively Geo Tags will be something more and more web developers start to utilize.

Here is an example of how the meta tags look when in use:

<meta name="geo.placename" content="Park Hills, Missouri">
<meta name="geo.region" content="US-M0">
<meta name="geo.position" content="37.84930;-90.52660">

As you can see the “geo.placename” tag allows the insertion of the town or city that the site is targeting.

The “geo.region” tag allows the developer to specify the region, in this case Missouri.

And lastly, the “geo.position” tag allows the latitude and longitude to be set.

Although it is still unclear how much weight the search engines put into these tags it is important that you utilize what tools are available to develop your site properly.

For more information on Geo Tags visit:

Geotagging – Wikipedia

From the day to day interactions I have had with customers my experience has been that it is best to start with a few minor changes to get things moving and then over time work to integrate more advanced web development techniques for making sure your business is found online.

With local search growing fast (in 2008 the growth rate was 58%) it is important that your site is properly setup so that the search engines can determine where you are located and what types of services you offer to your customers. If you are not doing this properly or do not have a website at all there is a real good chance your competitors are showing up when it should be you.

So, with that we here at HyperlocalSEO.com are focused on providing you with real world, easily implemented tips to helping you build customer growth for your business, even if you are the most offline of business.

Our first tip is a simple one, make sure that you put your address on each and every page of your site, or at a minimum on the About Us and Contact Us page.

This one thing can make all the difference in the world in how the search engines view your site, it can be as simple as the following:

Address:

ABC Company

1234 ABC Drive

Flat Rock, AZ 87733

Phone: 555-555-5555

Although that will work great in the content on your contact us and about us pages another couple great options would be to :

• Put a site wide text box in your navigation menu bar on the left or right of your site
• Put the address horizontally across your footer

I have witnessed both of these work for customers.

For more information visit us at Localtek.com where we provide local search optimized web design for our customers in Missouri.