Local SEO Help Florida | "How to Take Advantage of Local SEO for Your Business"

Source       : http://seo4yourwebsite.com/
By             : CHAD HOFFMAN
Category   : Search- Engine-Optimization
Posted by  : Local SEO in Florida

Local SEO in Florida

There will always be a need to assume people who read what you write, as it concerns internet marketing, know at least something about the subject. Just imagine taking a complete newbie and trying to explain absolutely everything on Local SEO Help.

So it can be assumed that incomplete knowledge on that will exist, and that just complicates the learning process.

This is just part of the nature of online business or even offline for that matter. When you think about it, those who allow themselves to become stagnant in business are the ones who get left behind.

The thing about not knowing is you do not know that your knowledge is incomplete, and so doing something like networking or joining a mastermind group can be extremely helpful.

Local SEO is becoming more and more popular, especially since geographic based marketing is catching up. In this article, we will analyze three local SEO ideas that give great results so you can ensure your business ranks highly in the SERPs for the keyword of your choice.

Your profile, for your offline business, is really very important to have, and you should make one at Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The first thing is registering and creating your profile, but before it gets listed they’ll need to verify your offline business address by phone or mail. This is really a very easy process that is fairly quick to do, but still you would be surprised at the number of businesses that have no idea about making a profile. This simple step will help you with your local SEO efforts, and you really should do it asap. Of course not every IM method in existence will be something you can use, but you should be aware of what can be done for those times when you learn about a new technique. Since we have no idea how you market or what your model is, we do realize that Local marketing strategies could be partially useful or maybe not at all depending on your situation. However, as strange as it may sound not all marketers want to take their businesses to higher levels of performance. As it concerns us, we keep our radar up and running at all times because we do not want to miss any chance to capitalize on an opportunity. You do understand the value of learning more approaches and tactics so you can further build on what you already do?

You have heard about all the shrewd business people who have taken every opportunity that comes across their desk if it would work with what they do in business. You have to make sure you are treating your customers right and not making the error of treating them wrong. While this may not be cutting edge news, it will be more effective even now when there are lots of social media and review sites that allow clients to speak their mind. The news will spread fast, whether it is good or bad. Thus, to reduce the likelihood of your customers badmouthing you, you need to make sure that you treat them well. In fact, if it is possible, you should try to over-deliver to guarantee the complete satisfaction of your customers. You will be successful with this technique if you try to do the most you can. Local search focuses on information that is mentioned in the local profile of a business, along with the information found on other sites. Therefore, if a customer has a bad experience with you offline, they could still post an online review.

Including easy to see location information on all of your site pages could be important. What you’re doing is just helping people to quickly see your contact and location information. Local SEO involves much more, but these practices will help you with your site visitors.

Website Maintenance Florida | "Website Maintenance Tips"

Source       : http://totheweb.com/
By             : ToTheWeb
Category   : Website Services In Florida
Posted By : Web Maintenance in Florida

Website Maintenance Florida 

It's a regular occurrence for an employee or business owner to be handed the task of running and maintaining a website when another employee leaves or the firm that was running the site moves on to other projects.

To The Web often maintains the sites we build, however we know that sometimes the site owner wants to handle it on their own. With that in mind, we offer these words of advice for those new to website maintenance, which is much more than just keeping the site live!

Backups — ensuring that your website files are backed up frequently is critical. Don't rely on your web host to do it for you! They usually don't do backups frequently enough. Keep a copy of your website on your local computer and back it up regularly. That way, if your web server crashes, and it's been a month since the server was backed up, you can quickly restore your site to show your most up-to-date content. 

Download before updating — before revising a web page, download the page from the live site to your local system to ensure you have the latest version of the page (and don't forget to check for new/revised graphic files as well). Then make the changes and upload them to the web server. 

Link checking — if your website has outbound links (and most do) these links should be checked regularly in case the URL on the destination website has changed. Consider using Xenu's Link Sleuth but keep in mind that no link checker is perfect.

Maintain the site style — when updating a web page, be sure and maintain the site "look and feel". Modern websites have font and layout styles defined in a "stylesheet" file, so be sure and learn how CSS (cascading style sheets) work and use them. 

Maintain file names — if a PDF file is replaced with a newer one, keep the file name the same so that links to the file do not have to be revised, the search engines will not need to update their indexes, and "page not found" errors will be avoided. 

Maintain search engine optimization features — every modern website that wants to rank well in the search engines natural search results has been "search engine optimized". That means that throughout the site, keyword search terms have been used in a variety of ways to optimize page ranking in the search engines. If those terms are altered or replaced, that may negatively impact site ranking. If you have to revise the content on a web page, do not alter the embedded search terms without carefully considering the consequences. 

Check your changes in multiple browsers — different web browsers can and regularly do interpret the same HTML differently! Every time you make a change to a web page, view the page in Windows IE, Netscape, and Firefox, and also in Mac Firefox, Safari, and Netscape. You do not want to have your website visitors seeing a messed up page layout anymore than you want one person to see a company brochure printed with the colors out of register. 

Learn HTML — WYSIWIG web editors like FrontPage and Dreamweaver have a lot of cool features but they are not perfect. There is no substitute for learning HTML and being able to work directly with the code when the web editors can't do something you want done or they produce results that look bad in some browsers.

Website Changes | "5 Website Changes That Will Hurt Your SEO"

Source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2064522/5-Website-Changes-That-Will-Hurt-Your-SEO
By: Eric Enge
Category: Website Changes
Posted By: Website Maintenance in Florida

5 Website Changes That Will Hurt Your SEO

One of the biggest factors in the traffic you get from search engines is the inbound link profile to your site. When you make a significant change to your site, one question that the search engines need to consider is whether those links are still valid.

Would the person who linked to your site still link to it if they looked at it again now? If the answer is no, the search engine doesn't want to count that link.

Of course, the search engine can't determine the answer to that question, but they can choose to initially reduce the effective value of those inbound links for a period of time, until they see whether people start removing links to your site after you make a large change.

This filtering process helps protect them from spammers who look to buy domains with lots of link authority, and then change them into entirely different web sites (e.g., buying a domain that used to be for an educational institution and turning it into an auto insurance site). The people who linked to the educational institution certainly didn't mean to endorse an auto insurance site.

Let's look at a few cases where the search engine may consider a change large enough to reconsider how they treat your site.

1. Domain

Many website publishers make the decision to change their domain. For example, maybe they started out with a ".net" domain and they were able to obtain the ".com" variant of the same domain. Or perhaps they are simply rebranding their company.

Whatever the reason, a domain change in potentially seen as a huge change by the search engines, particularly if you do a site redesign, change the URL structure, change the content significantly, and change the WhoIs all at once.

Even if all you do is a simple domain change, the search engines have reason enough to contemplate the possibility that people who linked to the old domain would no longer choose to link to you. With a simple domain change and proper implementation of 301 redirects, your risk of a significant setback is relatively low. But the risk is still there.

2. URL Structure

It isn't uncommon for sites to go through complete redesigns, or to implement a new content management system (CMS) without making significant changes to the content at the same time. However, it takes time for the search engine to understand the new site structure to determine what is on the new version of the site.

All the intricate relationships between the pages of the site have been restructured, and this may take weeks or even months for the search engine to understand. In the meantime, they may feel a need to devalue your site somewhat. Implementing 301 redirects from the old pages to the new pages will help with this problem, but it doesn't eliminate it entirely.

3. Content

Significant changes in content can also give a search engine a reason to ponder how it treats your web site. Even if the basic topic matter is unchanged, it can take some time for the search engine to make that determination.

4. Whois

When you make a change to the Whois record for a domain, even when no change is made to the domain itself, this can be an indicator of a change of the owner of the site.

To the search engines, much of the reason why one web site may link to another may be very much related to their trust in the owner. If the owner changes, is that trust still there? In many cases, the answer may be no.

Simply changing the e-mail address of the administrative contact isn't likely to be seen as such a signal, but changing the name or address of the registrant is likely to be interpreted as a change in owner.

Making such changes often goes without a hitch, particularly if you don't make other significant changes at the same time. Combining a major change to a web site and the registrant at the same time, however, starts to be quite a bit riskier.

Ultimately, the best way to change the registrant is to do it in isolation. Just wait a while before you make other significant changes to the site.

5. Theme

Changes in theme can take many forms. For example, if you have a site that is about auto insurance, and you then add a new large section on home insurance, it will certainly take a while for the home insurance section to receive the trust and authority conveyed by the inbound links. The value of the links to the auto insurance section of the site may also be devalued.

The type of change that would be seen as a theme change could even be a lot more subtle. For example, if you had a site that was purely a directory of links to auto insurance resources, with little text content on them, and you suddenly start putting lots content on those pages, this may also be seen as a significant change.

It gets back to core principle: Would the links that were given to a directory site still be given now that you've made a deep content site, even though it's on exactly the same topic?

Summary

Learn to consider the possibility of changes to your inbound link profile when you make changes to your site.

Will the change you're considering possibly impact those links? Even if the answer is no, you should also ponder whether the search engine will see the change as large enough that the search engine will question the ongoing value of those historical links.

Remember that the search engines use algorithms to make their determinations, and algorithms aren't as smart as humans are at figuring out what is a material change to a potential linker.

Best SEO Company | "Search Engine Optimization Services"

Source: http://www.highervisibility.com/search-engine-optimization/
By: Highervisibility
Category: Best SEO Company
Posted by: Website Maintenance in Florida

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization Services

Search Engine Optimization is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to your website from search engines. Using methods that search engines employ to rank a page, our search engine optimization services can make your website appear on the very first or second page of a search engine’s listings for relevant keywords.

As one of the Best SEO companies we make the necessary changes to a website in order to achieve top rankings in the major search engines. Google, Yahoo!, MSN, and Ask all look for different ranking criteria. A good Search Engine Optimization services company can make your site friendly to all of these search engines at once.

Why You Need Search Engine Optimization?

According to various studies, most people prefer to click on organic search results rather than sponsored results, by a very wide margin. Jupiter Media recently reported, 80 percent of Internet users start off in search engines before they buy a product or service online. Not appearing in the top listings for your specific keywords can mean the difference between the success or failure of your online business.

All of Our Packages Include:

• Competition analysis
• Keyword and marketplace research
• Engaging Ads written by our staff of copywriters
• Title tag and meta keyword optimization
• HTML code optimization
• Database rewrites with Spider-friendly site architecture
• Press releases
• XML sitemap creation and implementation
• Robots.txt creation and implementation
• Enhanced Directory Submissions
• Local Directory Submissions
• Ongoing Consulting Time
• Keyword Ranking Report

Website Maintenance |"Excellent Website Maintenance"

Source: http://www.websitemaintenancelabs.com/
By: Web Maintenance Labs
Category:Website Maintenance
Posted by: Website Maintenance in Florida

Website Maintenance

We provide excellent website maintenance
for small businesses, organizations, marketers, and entrepreneurs. We want you to win.

What we do

• Website maintenance and updates
• Help you take control of your site, driving new business

Why you need us

• Web design companies don't handle long term maintenance well
• Website maintenance is critical to your success
• Pull off sales, promotions, company news, and engaging fresh web content

Why choose Website Maintenance Labs?

• Fixed website maintenance fees starting at just $30 per month
• Built from the ground up to provide ongoing website maintenance
• Someone to get a hold of when the website isn't quite right
• We save you time, money, and stress

SEO In Florida | "Search Engine Optimizing And SEO Companies Can Grow Your Business"

Source      : http://topseopicks.com/
By            : TopSEOPicks
Category  : Search- Engine-Optimization
Posted by : Local SEO in Florida

SEO In Florida

The best seo companies are ready to move forward into the future. The Ads tab on Google is something that you should use to your advantage when you are working with different seo companies. Out there. A large number of the best seo companies are going to work hard to have a dialogue with their customers before they begin the search engine optimizing process. There are a lot of good information technology leaders out there who definitely see the value in search engine optimizing as they work hard to learn more about how to grow their companies.

The search engine optimization strategies that you originally employ can end up changing quickly. A big time gift to many people would be if Google changed their rating system to a more coherent strategy and overall approach. There are so many companies who like the idea of learning more about information technology, but it is very true that they would have to outsource the work in many cases.

Successful communication can be crucial when you are trying to implement an SEO strategy on Bing for example. Many search engines have to work with companies as well, they can’t just keep guessing at what you are offering.

Telecommunications executives can even see the value of people learning more about seo, they would certainly want more people using broadband technology where it is truly necessary.

There are many people out there that end up creating very good websites because they actually have a fairly deep understanding of search engine optimization. Communities that struggle to gain broadband access probably yearn to work with some of the best seo companies out there.

A business owner can create new revenue by embracing different seo strategies. The truth is that many of the SEO strategies that worked in 2011 would still work today, many people are still just learning how to effectively use search engines. A workforce development board would be very smart to use seo strategies. There are some seo strategies that can be hit or miss. The truth of the matter is that you want to be able to have a large enough commitment to the process that you are able to try different strategies.

Unions can even gain more members due to a good SEO strategy. The best unions out there can be very tech savvy, you don’t automatically want to think low tech just because you hear the word union. A business analyst may be able to tell union members about the necessity of running a good seo operation. You want to stay relevant amongst younger, potential members.

Be ready to admit some failures in the world of SEO, but if you are aligned with the right company than there won’t be many failures at all. A growth market can be nurtured by the right seo practices. Powerful people can see their companies grow and then they can do a lot of social good because of solid seo practices.

Search Engine Optimization | "Microsoft updates three key Windows 8 applications, improving Mail, Calendar and People "

Source: http://thenextweb.com
By: Traffic + SEO
Category: Search- Engine-Optimization
Posted by:Local SEO in Florida

Microsoft Updates 3 key windows 8

Today Microsoft announced that several of the core Windows 8 applications that ship with the operating system will be updated to include a slew of new features. In the estimation of TNW, these updates bring the Mail, Calendar, and People to the level of 1.0, in that they are now featured to the point of being complete.

The following updates will begin to roll out starting this evening, or tomorrow morning depending on your region. If you don’t see the new code now, sit tight, and expect in the next few days. Now, to the updates. We’ll do this in three tranches.

Mail

The Mail application in Windows 8 has never been loved, given that when compared to the plethora of email applications – both web-based and desktop-built – it is out-kicked in terms total features. However, with today’s update, it garners a number of improvements that better it.

Filtering has been improved, as has search; when you search, you can now better find emails that are on the server. This will save you time in terms of loading past messages. The application will still only cache so much on your devices, bu you won’t be stuck hunting as long as you were before.

The following list details, via Microsoft, the changes:

Create, rename, and delete folders.
Flag messages and view all flagged messages.
Filter for unread messages and choose when messages are marked as unread.
Sync faster and more reliably.
Search for mail on the server.
Get easier access to search and printing.
Mark messages as junk mail.
See smart contact suggestions when composing a message.
Add, edit, and delete links when composing a message.
Edit bulleted or numbered lists more easily when composing a message.
Paste in formatted content from other apps more reliably.
Save senders as new contacts.
Read and compose rights-managed messages.
Delete all messages in a folder or mark them as read in one action.
Manage draft messages more efficiently.
Send email from your outlook.com alias.

If you are an everyday user of Mail, those updates will solve a number of headaches that you most certainly dealt with.

Allow me the following analogy: Just as Windows Phone 8 fully featured Windows Phone as an operating system, in terms of its feature set, so too does this update bring Mail into the common core of what might be expected from a message mail applications.

Calendar

You can now see a full work week quickly. You can also now forward invitations, and bring up a shared calendar view of every meeting attendee to see their combined scheduling openings. Now, when you must schedule a meeting – don’t – you can pick a time in which everyone can actually make the appointment.

Calendar isn’t Outlook’s ability to schedule, but that isn’t to say that now it isn’t useful. Sure, we all use Google Calendar, but for the Windows 8 using population, the following updates will be more than useful:

Find appointments more easily with updated visuals and improved readability.
See your work week at a glance.
See current time in day and week views and when Calendar is snapped.
Check the availability of meeting attendees.
Forward meeting invitations.
Send email to all meeting attendees.
Choose more recurrence options.
Set end dates for recurring events.

We now move to the People hub to wrap this set of updates. Keep this in mind: If you are a daily Windows 8 user, the above and below set of improvements will boost your quality of life. However, they are not an argument to move to Windows 8 itself; if you have a perfect setup, ask yourself if it actually is, and secondly, if this is what you need.

People

Finally, Microsoft has updated the People hub of Windows 8. Key to this update is the ability to post to a contact’s Facebook wall inside of the People hub itself. Microsoft didn’t drop nine-figures into the company to not rock a bit of functionality, right?

The People hub has always been a mess, with a wandering interface and seemingly disparate – your fuel per distance will differ – information streams. This fix will highlight Facebook in your efforts. That’s not a negative. Facebook remains the key social network online.

Here’s the new features:

See information from your Exchange global address list.
Filter your What’s new feed by social network.
Post to your friend’s Facebook wall.
Navigate to People sections more easily.

It’s key to realize that the above applications fall under the ‘communications’ set of Windows 8 core applications. The Appex apps built by Bing are separate. Keep them distinct mentally. Now, go and see if you have the new code.

Search Engine Optimization | "The Web App That Has Web App Developers Drooling"

Source : http://techcrunch.com
Category : Search  Engine Optimization
By : Traffic + SEO
Post By : Local SEO in Florida

Search  Engine Optimization

Anyone remember the last time I said “Wow! Look at how pretty this web app is!”? Because I don’t.

At least, not before this morning when I saw Forecast.

Warning before anyone is like “WTF? Why is TechCrunch writing about a weather app? UNSUBSCRIIIIIBE”: Yeah, Forecast is a weather app. But it’s a really, really pretty weather app.

Brought to you by the same guys who built Dark Sky (which is already one of the prettiest native weather apps), Forecast is a rather remarkable demonstration of what web apps — in both mobile and standard form — can do with good scripting and solid design (You can read all about the development of Forecast here)

First, check it out in your computer’s browser. Click around a bit. Tap the little Play button beneath the globe. Drag the pin around. Shift through historical weather data in the Time Machine. Your mind blown yet?
forecast
Now check it out on your Android phone or iPhone. Play with the amazingly smooth sliding drawers, and the buttery slide-in navigation bar. If your mind still isn’t blown, you’ve never tried to build something like this on the web. Or you have and you’re just way, way too cool for your own good.

I figured I was just easily impressed, but just about every code-minded person I follow on the Twitters has raved about Forecast sometime in the past two hours. Even the Hacker News crowd had nary a negative comment. I kind of wish I didn’t have to add the web app to my homescreen before I was allowed to play with it, but given the way people tend to stumble upon weather apps when they need them and then immediately forget about them once they’re done, it’s a forgivable retention trick.

Website Maintenance | "Seven Guidelines for Universal Web Design"

Source         :  http://multichannelmerchant.com/ecommerce/guidelines_universal_web/
By                :  Multichannel Merchant
Category      : Website Maintenance
Posted by    : Website Maintenance in Florida

Website Maintenance

To better illustrate the tenets of universal Website design, the Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University established seven guiding principles:

quitable use
The design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities.

Flexibility in use
The design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities.

Simple and intuitive
Use of the design is easy to understand, regardless of the user's experience, knowledge, language skills, or concentration level.

Perceptible information
The design communicates necessary information effectively to the user, regardless of ambient conditions or the user's sensory abilities.

Tolerance for error
The design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions.

Low physical effort

The design can be used efficiently and comfortably, and with a minimum of fatigue.

Size and space for approach and use
Appropriate size and space is provided for approach, reach, manipulation, and use regardless of the user's body size, posture, or mobility.

Website Maintenance | "On-target onsite search"

Source         : http://www.trafficplusseo.com/
By               : Traffic + SEO
Category     : Virtual Social Media
Posted By   : Local SEO in Florida

Website Maintenance

Most of the buzz about online search focuses on search engine marketing. But onsite search — the effectiveness and user-friendliness of your Website's search function — is also an essential part of doing business online.

According to “The State of Retailing Online 7.0,” a study by Cambridge, MA-based Forrester Research, 48% of visitors use the search function when visiting an e-commerce site, as opposed to finding merchandise by drilling down or using other navigational tools. And given that use of onsite search has risen 50% during the past few years, according to David Schatsky, senior vice president of New York-based Jupiter Research, it's safe to say that online merchants would be wise to invest in improving their onsite search functions with better dictionaries and thesauri and additional options.

The first step in creating a successful search function is to determine if the current search is meeting the needs of site visitors. This entails comparing conversion rates for your overall site and for your site's search function to those of other online retailers, says Rich Stendardo, retail solutions manager at Cambridge, MA-based search technology provider Endeca. Looking at the average conversion rate of specific search terms used by consumers on your site, Stendardo says, can also help you assess if proper search priorities are in place.

According to DoubleClick's November 2004 “E-Commerce Site Trend Report,” the average conversion rate for search-driven purchases was 2.1% in the third quarter of 2004, up from 1.5% the previous third quarter. The overall site conversion rate for the third quarter of 2004 was 4.6%. During the same period, 9.3% of all sales came via search, compared with 6.6% a year earlier.

If you find that your onsite search is falling short, chances are it's because of one or more rather common problems. The good news: These problems are easy to fix.

PROBLEM 1 The search function doesn't retrieve all the applicable matches — or it retrieves too many.
A recent search on Amazon.com for “evening dress” retrieved a whopping 6,000 results, including watches, books about dresses, and a My Little Pony toy as well as actual dresses. Another recent search, on Sundance Catalog's site, for “blue jeans” retrieved two results — neither of which was a pair of pants. Interestingly, both problems most likely have the same cause: a weak dictionary and thesaurus. Overly broad match algorithms (in which a term is deemed a match regardless of context or without regard for restrictive criteria) can make matters worse, as can a search function that draws results based on only a handful of product attributes or data fields.

When online toys merchant eToys launched in 1999, it used a basic out-of-the-box search function. Brian Bass, director of product development for Denver-based eToys, says that the search function's dictionary included no more than 600 words and was updated only a few times each year to include commonly misspelled words. In addition, the search function drew results based only on four attributes (product name, manufacturer, and short and long descriptions). As a result, eToys' search function had difficulty retrieving product results because of its limited dictionary — though at times it retrieved too many because of its broad keyword recognition.

Local Search Engine Optimization | "Optimizing For Local Search"

Source       : http://www.seoworkers.com/

By              : Traffic + SEO
Category    : Virtual Social Media
Posted By  : Local Search Engine Optimization Florida

Local Search Engine Optimization Florida

Whether or not you have a brick and mortar store, it is vital to ensure your web site is ranked well in searches for your local area. What does this mean?

People aren’t just searching for ’widgets’ anymore they are searching for "widgets AND my town" more and more trying to narrow their searches to their own neighborhood. Why is this?

People want to know whom they are dealing with online. They want to be able to visit your business location for your offerings, or at least have the peace of mind that they could if they wanted to.

For example, if you own a dry cleaning business, potential customers want to not only see your prices; they want directions and a map to get to your store. Even in the face of a global economy more and more people are realizing the importance of community and want to give their business to local merchants.

Here are some additional ideas to think about when adding your site to directories on the web.

Community: Yahoo definitely excels when it comes to including community in local search. They are combining their Yahoo 360 social networks with local listings. The results are most helpful for people who wish to find information relating the their own area.

When you select a listing for a restaurant, for example, you will see all of the consumer-generated recommendations. If a recommender is in your group of contacts, a star is placed next to their recommendation. You know not only other consumers' opinions, you know when those opinions are from people you know.

Mobile: Do not neglect the mobile search market. With the advent of systems like Verizon’s new technology and the Blackberry, people search for the nearest theater using their handheld device. Then they will search for that great martini bar that is nearby and open after the show.

Press Releases: Is your business doing something new and exciting online or offline? Are you you’re promoting it? Take advantage of free press releases from services.

Local City Searches: CitySearch is a major provider of local information for sites including MSN, Ask.com, Expedia.com, Ticketmaster.com, and many others.

Contact information on your site: Have a physical address and phone number within an <address> tag at least on your contact page and one other page; the best option would be the homepage. By far the best option is to have your address on all pages of your site. Such information builds trust rank value for your web site too.

Local Search Marketing – Attract Local Customers That Are Ready To Buy From You

Source          : http://rapidwebseo.com/

By                : Traffic + SEO
Category      : Virtual Social Media
Posted By    : Local Search Marketing Florida

Local Search Marketing Florida

The key to success with local search marketing is visibility in your market area. The internet is a big place, so search engines like Google work hard to help searchers find what they are looking for. As a business owner, it should be your goal to make it as easy as possible for customers to find you. You can do this for your local search marketing by carefully completing the SEO or search engine optimization strategy for your site. This includes structuring your site, optimizing it, and generally promoting your website and getting backlinks so Google will rank it high in the results where it will be seen by your customers.

To get good placement in the local search marketing results you need good on-page SEO as well as good off-page SEO. On-page SEO includes all the elements that you have the full ability to control, including the layout of your website, using clean code and CSS, navigation, content, and attention to critical HTML meta-tags and internal linking. (Don’t understand all this stuff? Don’t worry, just subscribe to my free newsletter!)

Off-page SEO consists of elements that benefit your website ranking but are substantially out of your control like links that appear on other websites and point back to your site. Because these external links are more difficult to get and you have very limited control, if any at all, they are more trusted as a neutral or third-party “vote” for your site, so they have more importance and carry greater weight with the search engines to influence your ranking in a positive way.

Link Building Is The Key To High Page 1 Rankings for Local Search Marketing

Link building is usually the most difficult task to accomplish, but it is also the most important element to rank well in the search index, so this cannot be ignored. Basically, you need links to all of the pages in your site, and lots of them. Additionally, you need links from diverse sources. This means links originating from blogs, articles, social media, videos, profiles, RSS feeds, etc. There are many sources of links available to you, and the best results are achieved by using a balanced mixture of all of them.

Link velocity is also important. Ideally, you want to build links to your site steadily and continuously over time. Although the more links you get the higher you are likely to rise in the search engines, it is important that the links be built gradually and naturally rather than by using automated software or other tricks that can build links with blinding speed but may get your site banned from the index. Slow and steady wins this race.

How many links you really need for local search marketing depends upon the competition in your market and the competition for a specific keyword phrase. You see, as you type in a search phrase into any search engine, the search results change depending upon the search phrase. So if you search for “plumber Atlanta Ga.”, you will get different results than if you search for “Atlanta Plumber”. They may have some similar listings, but they will be different.

Assuming all your on-page SEO is done properly, for the first example you may need 2,000 links to compete with the #1 site, and for the second example, you may only need 30 links. Now this is just an example with numbers I made up to illustrate the point. For free search traffic, you must choose the specific phrase you wish to rank for, then simply do whatever is necessary to appear for that phrase. If that phrase is very competitive, it may take many months or years to rise to the top of the rankings, not to mention a substantial investment in your SEO link building team.

Conversely, you can also choose easier keyword phrases that you can quickly and affordably dominate to generate profitable customer traffic. I will leave the specific research methods for another SEO article, but just know that all of this can be easily researched, measured, and you can set specific goals based upon the amount of time and/or money you want to invest into your website promotion and your online business.

Beyond Local Search Marketing – Connect With Your Customers Repeatedly

Once your site is live on the Internet, your SEO is in-place, and your external link-building campaign is in progress, you are ready to take advantage of other promotion methods to drive local web traffic. It has been written by the great minds in advertising that it takes contact with your customer 7 times before they are likely to take action on your offers. So, now we can use the many tools the internet offers to be sure we connect with them in many ways over time. Every business has competitors. You must be the one they remember when they need what you sell. To do this we commonly use both free and paid tools for local search marketing like these:

Google Maps – Get a free page one listing and a map to your place of business.

Email Marketing – Connect free with prospects and turn them into customers over time

Facebook – Offers free and paid ways to connect with your customers (and it’s BIGGER than Google!)

Google Adwords – Paid ads on Google Search network

Google Content Network – Paid ads on other local sites

Yahoo Paid Advertising – Free organic listings and paid search and display ads

Bing Paid Advertising – Free organic listings and paid search and display ads

Media buys and Placement ads – Paid ads on sites you choose

Forum Commenting – Network where your customers hang-out and make your company the one they remember.

Plenty of other advertising and local search marketing opportunities, too!

Local Search Marketing Is The Key To Success On The Internet For Any Local Business

As you can see there is no shortage of ways to get the word out to your customers with local search marketing. If they can’t find your business when they are ready to buy, they will call your competitor. A high-ranking online presence in search engines and on popular websites is the best way to be sure they call you for the sale.

Local SEO Guide | "Matt Cutts: Local search in Google Places"

Source        : http://rapidwebseo.com/
By              : Traffic + SEO
Category    : Virtual Social Media
Posted By  : Local SEO Guide in Florida

Local SEO Guide in Florida

Matt Cutts, a Google software engineer and search quality spokesman, explains how you can qualify for your local search listing in the search engine.

If your business works within a specific geographic area, the local search listings in Google Places makes it possible for you to appear in the local search results within a 50 mile radius of your business.

He points out that to qualify for local search listings, you must be a local business, and you need  a physical business location within your service area that is verifiable by Google employees.

If your business is physically located outside of an area you serve, you will not qualify for inclusion in local search results, and cannot be listed. However, all is not lost. There are still opportunities for you to connect with those local search customers.

The organic search listings on the page are available to all websites that optimize and rank for that search term, so a prominent position is still possible with by applying on-page and off-page SEO techniques.

In this video, Matt tells you what it takes to qualify for your free listing.

Another option to consider for out of area businesses is advertising in Google Adwords. These are the paid ad listings at the top of the results page, and all along the right side of the page. You can be listed for many different local search terms to help customers find you. All that is necessary is a well optimized website that can obtain a good Google quality score, and placing a pay-per-click bid that is high enough for your ad to be shown above competing ads on the page.

If you have a local business and want to rank well in Google Places, you can be certain that Matt Cutts will provide accurate information that you need to be successful on the internet.

Local SEO Services | "What next? Predictions for Local SEO in 2013"

Source         : http://www.trafficplusseo.com/
By               : Traffic + SEO
Category     : Virtual Social Media
Posted By   : Local SEO in Florida

SEO 2013

I can’t believe that it’s nearly Christmas ! This year has flown by at a terrifying pace and I hope that December brings a few days of calm so that we can reflect on what has passed, and what the future holds.

2012 has been (another) year of significant change for all of us involved in ‘Local’ and 2013 is set to be just as busy. But what will 2013 bring, and how should we prepare ourselves & our customers to capitalize on the developments which will shape the next 12 months?

We called upon 4 extremely knowledgeable & experienced SEOs and industry watchers to share their wisdom and predictions for ‘Local’ in 2013. We thank them wholeheartedly for taking the time to talk with us and give us the benefit of their insights. Thanks guys!

Qu 1. Looking back…what has been the biggest change in local search in 2012?

MIKE BLUMENTHAL

“Two big trends that I see are:

Google firmed up their leadership position in local search on the desktop and from mobile browser and,

The growth of the app as an alternative source for local search information (vs mobile search)

At a micro level, the biggest change was the broader recognition of the impact of local and the need for businesses small and large to understand it.”

LINDA BUQUET

The upgrade to Google+ Local.

The ability to merge/verify with a Google+ Business page (which is still problematic and not ready for prime time.)

The diminished LOCAL Serps display.

While a lot of emphasis will likely be put on 1 and 2 by others, I’d like to spell out #3, because I think it’s affected local search the most (in general terms).

The ‘blended’ Local SERP display USED to be ADDITIVE. You’d get the benefit of a full paragraph keyword-rich organic listing PLUS all the local goodies added on top, which made a bigger listing that stood out.

Now the red map marker has turned to gray, the gold stars are gone, the title tag and description are gone. It’s a stripped down tiny bare listing without any keywords or context. Just name, address, phone.

Many businesses I work with would now prefer AND find they get higher click-through with a top organic listing than with a local listing. More businesses are asking “How can I get rid of that local listing so I can just show up in organic again and get my clicks back.” So I advocate/teach getting the best of both worlds. Get an organic listing on top so you have the keywords and description, PLUS get a separate local listing, so you have the benefits of a map marker and reviews.

So the visibility of local listings was just greatly de-emphasized and diminished over the year 2012.”

LAURA BETTERLY

”I think Google changing from Places to Google + Local changed things a lot–but this year has been full of changes. Panda, Penguin and the Exact Match Domain updates also effected Local so none of the campaigns we run end up being ‘set and forget’. A lot more care and effort has to go into what we do on a local level.”

MIKE RAMSEY

Google+ local is the big one, but there was a specific area within the new product that has effected what we do more than any other… Reviews.

The Zagat review system being integrated into Google brought about the biggest change for the following reasons.

1. No more 5 star system that helped with click through rates. 

2. People now have to have a Google+ account to leave reviews and even read all of a companies reviews. 

3. The review filter Google put on lots of service based industries has been a huge frustration with business owners that have actually pushed them to start diversifying reviews to other places and niche directories.

Local SEO Marketing | "Best Practices for Local SEO 2013"

Source       : http://www.trafficplusseo.com/
By             : Traffic + SEO
Category   : Virtual Social Media
Posted By : Local SEO in Florida

Local SEO Marketing

The World Wide Web is filled with local SEO services, social media and a number of other goods that guarantee a good deal. Occasionally they guarantee far as well significantly, the reason being that every person these days is logged on towards the World Wide Web, looking up services via mobiles and Google Maps. It’s frequent intellect that a single will first produce a priority search with local intent for just about any item or services before resorting to outsource SEO needs.

Many marketers, very good marketers that is certainly, will have an ongoing newsletter where they share guidelines and tricks that their local SEO services provide. They let you know why it truly is a good idea to perform something, or a poor thought to complete one more, although filing data for your local organization listings provide a precise and thorough profile with the entire handle and phone amount of your organization. This enables search engines to appropriately collaborate any third celebration company information it picks up, for you. Your verification will likely be complete with a phone or postcard sent for your enterprise address.

Produce a single listing for every physical place of one’s organization. Develop individual pages targeting various geographical areas. Route all local listings towards the related pages of one’s website and not the residence web page. Possess the page enumerate all services and goods for that specific spot in detail. As opposed to focusing only on popular search phrases that appeal to massive site visitors it might also be a good thought to focus on much less known but much more specific key phrases that will almost certainly display up your website several more times on the local.

Whatever transpires, always remember that Consumer is the King. Deal with them correctly and never give unfavorable vibes. Each you’re on the internet and offline customers make use of the web and can depart testimonials that hurt your business. Search local seo services compile data in your company from third celebration profiles and other business websites. Attempt to signify your firm within a very good light and consider some if not comprehensive handle of what seems about your business on the internet.

Local SEO Expert | "Local SEO Tips for Small Business"

Source      : http://www.virtualsocialmedia.com/
By             : Jayson DeMers
Category   : Virtual Social Media
Posted By : SEO in Florida

You need to know about local SEO to help your small business to thrive. A local SEO is similar to regular SEO, but the difference is that it s being optimized to attain local search result. Today, search engines can show local search results that are based on your location. This is the reason why it is very important for small businesses to focus on local SEO.

Being a small business, your business is only limited in a particular place, area or location. This makes local SEO an imperative part of your search marketing strategy. With this kind of strategy, you will know more about your target market and the type of customers you need for your business. This is the main advantage of listing your website to local search results. You need keywords that will target customers around your area. The best thing that you can do is to perform a keyword search and find out how chosen keywords are listed. You can make several changes according to the search result.

You need to know that business address is a priority in local SEO. If you want to rank in local SEO, then you need to give priority with your contact address. Your contact details and address must be given importance within your website. This is something that is irrelevant with regular SEO.

You should not focus on Google because there many other search engines that people use around the world. You need to know the popular search engine people use. You can do it by surveying your customers and clients. You can ask them what search engine they commonly use for searches.

Reviews and citations can help you rank better in Google. You can request some of your customer to give genuine reviews about your product or services, but make sure that they are satisfied with your offerings.

Social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter  and Google+ can help in local SEO. Most of your friends in different social media websites are locals, so it will be helpful if you can increase Social Media presence. This is also important in regular SEO. You can improve your brand name if you can make your business popular in different social media networks.

In any SEO whether local or regular, content is a vital aspect. Ranking and search engine results are highly based on content that you have in your website. Quality content with back-links can help in indexing. Sites with regular content update are very attractive to Google bots.

Today, many people use smartphone and search online using their mobile phones. It is helpful if you can optimize your website for mobile users. Android phones already have Google application installed within the phone for users.

If you have small business, then you need to make sure that you opt for local SEO, so you can become number one locally and customers around your area will find your business online.

Local SEO Florida | "Local SEO for Florida Businesses"

Source      : http://www.searchenginejournal.com/
By             : Jayson DeMers
Category   : Local SEO Florida
Posted By : SEO in Florida

Local SEO Florida

With all major search engines delivering local business results above most organic search results, an expertly-executed local seo campaign is critical for achieving massive success online. Even a small one-man shop can achieve a dominant placement in the big 3 search engines and drive a substantial increase in leads or customers with a detailed, effectively planned campaign. Additionally, the increasing shift with regard to local relevance means a staggering increase in the number of businesses relying heavily on local search placements to grow their business.

Maps and Local Listings

Google and Bing maps have the ability to drive substantial traffic increases from the two websites alone. For nearly all local businesses, the best approach is a combination of effective, ethical link building and a local listings package that covers all of the important “internet yellow pages” and then some. Our local listings package is leagues above anyone in the SEO industry. Our truly comprehensive local SEO package is less expensive than the companies who focus on only doing local submissions and delivers far greater impact on your bottom line for the marketing dollars invested.

Local SEO Guide | "The Definitive Guide to Local SEO"

Source      : http://www.searchenginejournal.com/
By             : Jayson DeMers
Category   : Local SEO Florida
Posted By : SEO in Florida

Local SEO Guide

If your business has a physical location, you’ve undoubtedly been told that you need local SEO. But for many business owners, local SEO remains shrouded in mystery; what does “Local SEO” even mean? What do you need to do? Why do you need it?

I caught up with Sam McRoberts, CEO of Vudu Marketing, for an interview to answer these questions and more. My goal was to create the ultimate resource for local SEO, including an action plan you can immediately execute whether you’re a small business owner or an agency SEO with a local SEO client. Admittedly, I learned a lot from this interview, and I hope you do too!

1. What types of businesses need Local SEO?

Any business that gets some or all of its customers or clients locally should consider local SEO. That could be a local restaurant, retail outlet, doctor, dentist or lawyer, but it could just as easily be a local ad agency. If you have a physical address in a city and expect people to go there, you should be doing local SEO for that location.

2. How is Local SEO different from National SEO?

While all of the elements that apply to national SEO also impact local SEO (on-page factors, links, social, indexing, etc.), local comes with a few unique elements.

The first and probably most important is that for local SEO you need to create and claim a local profile on Google (and other platforms as desired.) Your local listing is what will show (usually) for localized search results.

The second most important thing is called a citation. A citation is any place online that uses your company NAP (name, address, phone number) all on the same page, in the same format as your local listing. This same format bit is pretty important. While Google is pretty smart, it’s best to make sure that your local citation efforts match your local listing as closely as possible. Don’t abbreviate in one and not the other (St. vs Street, (800) vs 1-800, etc.)

Third, reviews. Lots and lots of reviews (preferably really good ones.) Quantity and quality of reviews left for your business on your Google Places page is one of the most important local ranking factors.

3. How does on-site optimization differ for Local SEO vs. National SEO?

All of the same elements apply, but there are four things you should strongly consider mixing in. One, make sure your name, address and phone number are used on every page of your site, in the same format as your Google local listing (in the footer is an ideal location.) Two, use your City and State names in your Title tags, Meta descriptions, and the content on your site (as it fits, don’t just force it in there.) Three, make use of Schema local markup to better help search engines identify and show your location. Four, include a KML file on your site (Keyhole Markup Language). While some of this may seem redundant, it never hurts to send as many legitimate signals as you can :)

4. What are the most important signals that boost local SEO rankings?

The three biggest factors in local listings appear to be the number of citations, the number of reviews (primarily on your Google Places listing, though other places do count), and how positive the reviews are overall. From what I’ve seen, positive reviews will trump citations, so persuading your customers and clients to leave great reviews on your Google local page is the single most important thing you can do. Of course, there are some things that have a big impact and that may not be directly in your control, such as how close your business is to the city center.

5. What does the location of a business to the city center have to do with anything?

Google uses something commonly called “centroid bias”, which means that if someone searches for, say, Seattle Dentist, there will be a bias towards the dentist locations that are closest to the center of the city. While it is possible for a business in a neighboring city to rank for a metro keyword (i.e. a business in Cambridge trying to rank for a Boston keyword), if you’re on the outskirts of a city, or in a city neighboring a major metropolitan area, you’re going to be at a disadvantage.

6. Can you outline a brief action plan you’d recommend for new company looking to compete for local search results?

First, claim your local listing on Google Places, and make sure to complete your listing until it’s at 100%. This will require adding images, videos, and more. When creating this listing, DO NOT use any keywords or location names in your business title or business description that aren’t a part of your official business name or absolutely critical to accurately describing your business.

Second, use a service like Yext to make sure that the information from your Google Places page is spread across all of the other major local platforms, in the same format. Each of these will become a citation, which is hugely valuable.

Third, use a tool like KnowEm to snag all of your social profiles (while not strictly local-centric, many profiles will show your name, address and phone number, which will instantly give you a whole pile of local citations.) Google of course is free, but using Yext and KnowEm will set you back $500 to $1,000 per location depending on the packages you select (KnowEm is a one-time fee, but Yext is ongoing.)

Next, make sure you have your on-site SEO in order (see #3), and that at least some of the links you build contain your target City/State combo (you can also use some Zip codes in your anchors as well, to spice things up.) If you aren’t doing link building yet, that’s OK, we’ll cover it.

Last but not least, do everything you can to get your happy customers to leave positive reviews for you on Google Places. You aren’t supposed to directly solicit positive reviews, but there are plenty of ways to encourage great reviews.

7. Can you recommend some ways a local business can get citations?

You can use a tool like the WhiteSpark local citation finder to locate the best citation sources for your city. Guest blog posts are also a fantastic way to get citations, as you can often work them into your author bio.

8. Can you recommend some ways a local business can get reviews?

Let your customers or clients know that they can rate their experience with you on your Google Places profile. Have logos up in your windows or in your office showing the places where people can leave reviews. Include your profile links in your email communications (particularly in follow-up emails after a purchase or visit), direct mail, and anywhere else you can think of to get it in front of customers. Of course, if you want positive reviews, you need to provide a product and/or service that warrants them.

And while this should go without saying, DON”T BUY REVIEWS. While Google doesn’t always catch fake reviews, they are working constantly to get better at it. Yelp on the other hand errs on the site of extreme caution, and often banishes overly positive reviews.

9. Do you recommend small, local companies do local SEO in-house or hire an agency?

What are the pros and cons of each? This depends entirely on your budget. There are plenty of guides out there that will walk you through local SEO, and you could quite easily put an intern in charge of reading those posts and following instructions (getting citations isn’t terribly complex.) Of course, if they mess things up, neither you nor they may realize it until it’s far too late. An agency will almost certainly be able to do the same things much, much faster, and while an agency may cost more upfront it might end up being worth it for the speed and accuracy.

10. Are there any specific services, websites, or tools that you recommend to help companies with local SEO?

The WhiteSpark local citation finder should be your first investment. It’s pretty cheap, about $16/mo, and is the best tool available for finding citation sources. This should keep you busy for quite a while. You should also use something like MySEOTool to track your rankings with localization (your rankings as seen by someone in your City/State.) You’ll also want to set-up Google Analytic and Google Webmaster Tools, so that you can effectively track what keywords are driving search impressions and traffic to your site.

11. What price range should a typical small business expect to pay for local SEO, (in house or agency)?

Local SEO via an agency could range from $100/mo for the most basic work all the way up to tens of thousands of dollars per month for a competitive space with hundreds or thousands of locations. Pricing will be based on the competitiveness of your space and the number of locations you have. In-house, you could be paying $2.50/hr for someone in the Philippines to build citations, all the way up to $100,000+ for a top notch in-house SEO. When it comes to SEO, local or otherwise, you typically get what you pay for, and cheap = risky.

12. Is Local SEO an ongoing endeavor, or is it more of a set-and-forget expense?

There’s an upfront set-up cost, but there is absolutely an ongoing component. You should be getting new citations, reviews, social mentions and links each and every month.

Sam McRoberts is the CEO of VUDU Marketing, a Seattle SEO company specializing in SEO audits and strategy creation. He has been involved with online marketing since 1999 and has worked with hundreds of clients, from small local businesses to Fortune 500 companies.