HOW A HYPERLOCAL APPROACH CAN OVERHAUL YOUR SEO STRATEGY
Small business owners used to consider search engine optimization a luxury. After all, even a basic website with a phone number and an e-mail address would get enough attention to generate new business. Paying for organic search engine results really only paid off for companies that relied on lead generation for big ticket sales, especially attorneys, banks, and professional development services.
Then, everything got local.
Google bought Zagat so it could weld that company?s respected business ratings into their Google Places service. Microsoft?s Bing search engine now plugs reviews from Yelp and Facebook into its results. As Americans replace the phone book with the search bar, businesses that haven?t focused on a local search engine optimization strategy could find themselves spending extra money on keyword ads while still losing out to scrappy competitors. Targeting the communities of your key audience makes your site even more appealing to prospects?and to search engines.
Search Engines Get Local
Over the past few years, search engines have responded to user demands by automatically applying more localized filters to their results. Web surfers who build detailed search profiles tend to get search engine results pages tuned to their location and their projected intent. That?s why, if I?m in New York City searching for ?Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza,? I?ll get recipe suggestions instead of directions to Lou Malnati?s.
If you don?t use local SEO targeting techniques on your website already, search engines have probably already made their best guess about where you operate. For example, if you?ve tried to extend a nationwide presence by using a toll-free number and a post office box, you?ll fall farther down the list on localized SERPs. According to Google?s quality guidelines, ?P.O. boxes are not considered accurate physical locations.?
On the other hand, a local area code in your phone number and a set of directions to your physical address teaches search engines to bump you higher than many of your competitors. Claiming your company?s physical location on Google, Bing, Yelp, and Yahoo! assures you of stronger results, especially if you serve customers face-to-face.
The Long Tail Loves Hyperlocal Keywords
Hyperlocal strategies tend to favor businesses who already operate in crowded keyword marketplaces, like real estate, insurance, and legal services. Instead of projecting a global presence, today?s best SEO targeting techniques encourage companies to ?deep dive? into their neighborhoods.
In addition to the tongue-in-cheek definition of the phrase ?Philadelphia lawyer,? searchers who use that phrase get served listings from attorneys all over the city. A ?Rittenhouse Square lawyer? and a ?Strawberry Mansion lawyer? mean two very different things to residents of those neighborhoods. Prospects identify more closely with businesses who have established themselves as part of their communities.
Companies just now investing in SEO strategy can pick up some quick wins by homing in on hyperlocal content. Instead of spending big bucks fighting for paid search results placements, some rare keyword combinations can put your business at the top of your prospect?s organic search results.
The Spiders Have Learned How to Read
Early SEO techniques focused on keyword placement and repetition, resulting in some ridiculous attempts to game the system with endless lists of longtail keywords. That frustrated users, and the search engines have heard their pleas. Google and Bing have both supercharged their search results with help from users? own social networks.
Search users can tell pretty quickly if they?re not finding the results they?re looking for. Either they click the back button or search the same phrase again in a short amount of time. If you make the same search as a member of your social network, Google and Bing will weight your SERPs using the knowledge they gained when your friends looked for similar information in the past.
That drives veteran SEO experts crazy. No amount of ?black hat? coding or keyword strategy can trump the knowledge that your prospect?s friend thought your site sucked. Instead of writing content for spiders, you?re writing for people. And the bots that still handle basic search engine crawling can tell the difference between a thoughtful piece of prose and a cynical list of linkbait phrases.
Building Community Backlinks
Diving deeper into your community can land you into a compelling, new backlinking strategy, as well. Previous versions of search engine algorithms ranked your site based on the number of other sites linking to it. Google added complexity when it introduced PageRank, presumably weighting your site?s inbound links based on the authority of the sites doing the linking.
A Stanford bias toward academic research bled into early Google and Yahoo! search results, emphasizing content hosted on servers with ?.edu? domains. Student newspapers and university publications experienced a veritable gold rush, as SEO experts and PR agencies fell over each other to earn backlinks from ?high authority? websites.
Under today?s hyperlocal SEO algorithms, linking from an ?.edu? doesn?t mean very much without the right context. A Seattle university student?s blog linking to the site of a Dallas coffee shop won?t do much to improve latte sales in the West End. In fact, too many college backlinks can make search engines suspicious of foul play. This month?s news included reports of SEO strategists so desperate to remove outdated backlinks that they?re issuing DCMA takedown requests against college-hosted websites.
Instead, today?s best organic search engine optimization techniques require you to meet your neighbors. That Dallas coffee shop will improve its search rankings when it posts blog items about the pizza shop that moved in on the corner, or about the travel agent who works up the street. A block or a neighborhood with local businesses that link to each other create a rising tide that lifts all their boats. (That?s especially good news for the travel agent, who specializes in cruises.)
Harnessing the Power of Reviews
Executing a localized SEO strategy doesn?t always mean devoting yourself to blogging about your neighborhood. The best testimonials about your business have always come from your customers. Today, your customers are writing about you online, whether you know it or not. Embracing those conversations and inviting them onto your site can help your business maintain its commitment to serving existing customers while discovering new ones.
Google, Bing, Yelp, Angie?s List, Facebook, and a host of competitors allow business owners to claim and manage ?locations? on their listings services. Despite some companies? attempts to lace review sites with paid praise, most web surfers can see through ?astroturfing.? Managers and owners who take the time to resolve complaints in public can earn repeat business by building trust online. In return, they can reap the benefits of comments, tweets, and blog posts attesting to the quality of their business?all of which factor into the latest search engine rankings.
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