The Benefit of Local SEO

35% of Google searches yield local results. If you are serious about growing your business, you need to get serious about local search engine optimization!

As a business owner or a website owner you must understand the advantages of SEO (search engine optimization) to your business. In regards to the internet there’s much more happening as far as searching is concerned and much less happening as far as browsing. If you would like your website or business to expand and earn more visitors and potential customers then you must understand the best method for them to get there is with the search engines.

Did you know that roughly 35 percent of searches come up with local results? The reason for this is because online businesses and companies understand that their customers are utilizing search engines for information and if they want to be located then they have to be on the search engine. Are you beginning to know the importance of search engine optimization now? There are lots of benefits to SEO but the fact is that you must do something in order to be found on the online.

Another vital factor about search engine optimization is that you not only will be found by possible customers but you’ll also earn brand recognition. If your name is your brand then you will want that to be out there for individuals to see, there is nothing greater than somebody tossing your name out there for people to hear and that’s exactly what the search engine is making happen. Now that you understand the importance of SEO to your business and you it’s time that you know a few tips to get to the top of the search engines.

Tips

Local business – The first method to be on the top of the search engine is to get your business listed as a local business but this isn’t always the greatest method. Lots of times people will not click on a business website simply because they’re just seeking information so you want to do more than just that in order to be placed in the searches and in the local results.

Content – If you’ve got a website then you must to have articles. One of the factors in where you rank on the search engine is what type of content is on your website and how important it seems. Most individuals think that articles are everything and in a way it is but it isn’t that important to Google. Articles are important for the mere reason that it must be original and read well, if neither is true for your site then your page will rank towards the bottom.

Links – Now in regards to Google the most important thing are links pointing back to your website. If you would like to sit at the top of the searches then it is imperative that you receive as many decent quality links as humanly possible all linking to your site. Lots of individuals think that the number of links is what matters but it is a mix of quality over quantity with the majority going to quality. In my mind the best way to get links is to write articles for article directories and to just provide lots of wonderful content and hope other sites will link to you.

Something you should think about in regards to local SEO is to hire a local SEO business to help you out.

Source  http://www.newswire.net/newsroom/permalink/69277.html

The Best Site Audit Firms in Australia Ranked By topseos.com.au for February 2011

topseos.com.au, an independent authority on search vendors has named the Best Site Audit Services in Australia for the month of February 2011. In any industry, an audit is one of the best ways of establishing the overall quality of a website. A site audit will give the business a clear picture of the actual value of the content that they have on their website. All the best site audit services next to hundreds of other site audit firms have gone through an evaluation system facilitated by a qualified and experienced team of researchers.

“The key elements that a Site Audit Firm in Australia should be able to determine is the effectiveness of a site, including search-effectiveness for sites that give importance to search engine optimization,” said Jeev Trika, Managing Partner of topseos.com.au (http://www.topseos.com.au).

The Top 10 Site Audit Companies in Australia for February 2011 are:

1.) Charles Elena

2.) Wiliam Pty Limited

3.) Ireckon Web Marketing

4.) Stockstreet Interactive Pty Ltd.

5.) DTDigital

6.) Immersive Pty Ltd.

7.) Bluewire Media

8.) LT SEO

9.) Simple Net Australia Pty Ltd.

10.) Think Profits.com Inc.

topseos.com.au has designed an evaluation system specifically to identify the leading Website Audit in the United Kingdom. As part of their assessment, they asked at least three clients of the firm to find out about their performance and the effectiveness of their services. Questions include both general and project specific queries such as, “How is client satisfaction measured?”, “To what extent are services customized to the client's needs?”, “What improvements does the staff need?”, “Does the pricing match up to the services received?”, “Are you satisfied with the overall services?”, “Who were the audit panel made up of?”, “How many rounds of audits were conducted and what did each round involve?”, “How were results of the audit presented to you?”, “Has a follow up audit been scheduled? If so, when is it?” or “What industry standards did the audit comply with?”

Source  http://pressmediawire.com/23661/The-Best-Site-Audit-Firms-in-Australia-Ranked-By-topseos-com-au-for-February-2011.html

Optimizing local search results for your business

Social Media Monday is a weekly feature that helps businesses and consumers understand how to use social media tools to their best advantage. This week’s feature is from Bradley Simonis, founder of E-Marketing Solutions Network (e-marketingsolutionsnetwork.com or on Twitter @emktgsolutions), specializing in local search, social media and mobile apps for restaurants and the service industry.

Lately, local search has been at the top of everyone’s radar, from search engines to social media sites to local advertising such as Groupon or, more locally, TipCity. As a small-business owner, you are missing a huge opportunity if it’s not on your radar.

So as a small-business owner, what can you do to increase your website’s local ranking without being a website programmer or search engine optimization guru? Put on your Google goggles and look at your website the way Google does.

Factors that determine your local rankings

There are two big factors you can control that help determine your local ranking results. One is your main identifier, known as NAP (Name, Address & Phone), and the other is your social media presence.

Imagine for a moment that somehow you have ended up with a listing under Juan’s Mexican Restaurant on one site, and a listing under Juan’s Mexican Café on another. When a search engine is looking at your Internet profile to determine how “important” your restaurant is, it cannot make a connection between the two locations so it assumes they are two different businesses. Sure, the address and phone are the same, but that is not enough to give the search engine the confidence that you are in fact one location. Such discrepancies are very detrimental to local search results.

Here are four steps to take control of your local business listing

1.

Do a search under your business name, under your business category, under anything that might pull you up. Look at local business directories like Merchant Circle, look under review sites like Yelp, and determine if your NAP is consistent.

2.

While you are on each of these sites, claim your listing if that option is available.

3.

Most sites have a place for additional information: products offered, coupons, hours of operation, credit cards taken, etc. It is critical that you complete all of the fields on every site.

4.

Now go to the two main sources of all business listings. That will be Localeze.com (sdut.us/localezelisting) and InfoUSA.com (expressupdateusa.com). Register your site, again with the exact NAP and all additional information they are seeking. The results will take time to permeate the Web, and you may have to go back and remake corrections you have already made, especially on the individual sites.

The role of social media in local search

By looking closely at a search query results page, in Google’s Places section for example, you will see that after a brief description, Google shows an address and phone (culled from your NAP). A recent review and its source are shown below that. Then the total number of reviews are shown to the right, as well a breakdown of review counts by source at the bottom of the listing.

So we can see that reviews are extremely important. And it makes sense. The more people are talking about you, the more Google assumes your location is a popular choice. (Assuming your reviews are all or mostly positive.) As such, you need to be proactive in gathering and monitoring reviews. Encourage your good customers to write about you and have them do it on a variety of review sites.

Finally, your social media presence plays another big role, and for the same reason. If two websites are created equal, doesn’t it make sense that the one with a higher social media profile must be a more popular place? Maybe that will help motivate you the next time you dread posting on your Facebook site.

Don’t just look at social media as something you know you should do because everyone is doing it (even though you don’t see results from it). It’s critical for getting your business found.

Source http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/feb/13/optimizing-local-search-results-your-business/

Three Simple, Efficient Ways To Increase the Rank of Your Website – Backlinks

If you have been into Internet marketing even for a while, you know how important a high page rank is when it comes to high search engine rankings. It plays a pivotal role in helping you get into good books of Google and gives you the exposure you need. As your page rank increases, you’ll find that you get more search engine traffic and therefore more customers. By using the strategies we’ll be outlining below, you’ll be able to boost your site’s page rank and get more traffic.

One way to get more backlinks and get a higher page rank is to take advantage of online forums. How do you exactly do that? You sign up with a forum, create a signature that has your link in it and then contribute by writing posts.Search engines like high traffic forums because they have new content daily, and this can boost your own page rank when you get backlinks from them. Simply put a link with anchor text in your signature and post regularly to forums in your niche that get a lot of traffic, and you’ll find that your own page rank goes up. Aside from the backlinks you can get, the forum can provide you with some direct traffic, since your audience will be people in your own niche. It can really pay off to research forums in your niche and then participate in them, as this can boost your traffic and page rank very effectively’

Guest blogging is another simple technique that can raise your page rank. It’s always a good idea to find blogs in your niche that have high page ranks, as these can be a source of backlinks.You can also ask these blogs if they accept guest articles, which would give you an opportunity to get published there with a resource box containing a link. When your article is published you will get a relevant backlink, and besides this you can get quality traffic from the blog’s readers. So it’s a win-win situation for both the blog and you, because they are getting free content and you’re getting the PR boost you need.

If you have a blog, you should also submit it to blog directories because search engines love them and they have a lot of incoming links which means a higher page rank. Try to find directories that are “do follow” so that you can submit your link and increase your page rank with their help. In most cases, you won’t have to pay a fee since these blog directories are free but if there is a charge it is usually worth paying. Simply run a search on Google to find these blog directories.

Also, make sure you internally link your site or blog’s webpages, as that will also help you get a higher page rank.

In closing, the tips listed above should show that boosting your page rank doesn’t have to be difficult, but it does require consistency. It does take a while but eventually you’ll see your site’s PR climbing up.

Look here to find out more about SEO Australia! Australian Search Engine Optimization firms know how to successfully target overseas, but the best is to be found right at home in the traditional Aussie culture! Learn how to get a free SEO quote today!

Source  http://eva-news.com/sme/marketing/link-building/three-simple-efficient-ways-to-increase-the-rank-of-your-website-backlinks/2373233/

The Best Search Engine Optimization Companies in Canada Ranked by canada.topseos.com for February 2011

canada.topseos.com, an independent authority on search vendors has named the best Search Engine Optimization Firms in Canada for the month of February 2011. Companies are already becoming serious about boosting the quality of traffic being directed to their site and have established an organic optimization campaign in place. Search engines are such an integral part of how visitors and potential clients find information on the internet, thus it becomes essential that websites are aligned with what the search engine is looking for. All the search engine marketing services next to hundreds of other SEO firms have gone through an evaluation system facilitated by a qualified and experienced team of researchers.

“Though there are many firms who engage in Search Engine Marketing activities, the process is by no means easy. Getting a link to the top of a search engine's results page requires a great amount of strategizing and only a company who understand the intricacies of organic optimization will be able to accomplish that,” said Jeev Trika, Managing Partner of canada.topseos.com (http://canada.topseos.com).

The Top 30 Search Engine Optimization Companies in Canada for February 2011 are:

1.) Search Engine People

2.) 1st on the List Promotion Inc.

3.) First Page SEO

4.) StepForth

5.) WebiMax

6.) Seologist

7.) FreshPromo

8.) Beanstalk

9.) Welpix - Visual Media Toronto

10.) Plu eMarketing

11.) 6S Marketing Inc.

12.) Acroterion Inc.

13.) eMarketing 101

14.) Searching Works Inc.

15.) Enquiro Search Solutions Inc.

16.) BubbleUP Marketing

17.) SitePosition Search Engine Marketing

18.) Bloom Search Marketing

19.) SEOBiz Solutions Inc.

20.) Bay Street SEO

21.) Metamend

22.) Search Rank Professionals

23.) Virtually Canadian

24.) First2Search

25.) Page Zero Media

26.) Get Clicked SEO

27.) WebWize Inc.

28.) SEO Expert

29.) Manning Search Marketing

30.) Epiar Inc.

canada.topseos.com has designed an evaluation process that specifically identifies SEO Companies in Canada that excel in their performance and output. An in-depth assessment looks at how the firm works and is able to achieve its objectives. Part of the assessment process includes gathering feedback from at least three of the firm's clients to understand their performance better.

As part of their assessment, questions include both general and project specific queries such as, “What type of needs analysis was conducted before work initiated?”, “What type of a ROI were you anticipating, what was achieved and in what time frame?”, “What would be 3 things you would change about your experience?”, “What was your total investment?”, “Rate your overall experience (1-10; 10 being the highest).”, “What are the most competitive keywords you have been able to rank on the major search engines and how long did it take you to achieve those rankings?”, “Did the agency modify the way they achieved higher rankings for you based on the Universal Search model introduced by Google? How?”, “How comprehensive, specific, and useful are the reports that are offered to the client? What metrics do they cover?”, “Do the reports inform you what the next set of steps ought to be to achieve higher rankings and when you can expect to achieve the next set of goals by?” or “How many of your top industry keywords rank in the top 10? Which ones?”

Source http://www.benzinga.com/press-releases/11/02/p826377/the-best-search-engine-optimization-companies-in-canada-ranked-by-canad