Written by Lesa Seibert | 10 January 2013
Posted in SEO Tip of the Week

So now you have a blog and know how to find content, but how can you make it even better?  Variable content.  Search engines and consumers love varied forms of content on blogs.  From video, to audio to photos, don't leave any of these out when creating blog posts.  This type of content really engages the reader and it provides great SEO benefits.  How to videos, product information videos, project photos, finished product photos, podcasts, etc., can be great tools to get messages across and are archivable on major platforms such as YouTube, iTunes, etc., which gives you even more visibility and the opportunity for anyone to find you.

Another way to get information out that would normally be boring is to create Infographics.  An Infographic is a visual representation of data/content that would normally be very boring and lengthy to read.  Infographics are also heavily shared and linked to from may sites.  Infogen (http://infographicsgenerator.com), offers a large variety of infographics to use as inspiration as well as a place to share yours.

You can also utilize surveys of your current customers and subscribers to see what type of content they would like to see.  This information can be invaluable, because if they asked for it they will read it and most likely share it with others, because it is tailored to them.  You can do email surveys, Facebook surveys or online surveys to engage your subscribers.

You can also look at your website analytics to see what blog posts have been visited the most and which ones have the most likes or social shares.  Use this as a guide to creating new content for your blog.

So the blog is written, now what?  A case study for our own company can give you an idea.  We started our blog in May of 2010.  We write our blog, then using a post scheduling software like HootSuite or Sendible, share it on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (company page and my personal page) along with 26 LinkedIn groups that contain our target market for our area (Linked Louisville, Linking Louisville, etc.).  These 26 groups contain over 290,000 members. Withing 6 weeks of starting our blog, our website traffic increased over 1400%!  You can't get that kind of visibility anywhere else.  This is not to mention the times our articles were shared and liked by others.

If you do your blog correctly, it can be a great way to increase your visibility for both potential customers and the Search Engines. 

Written by Lesa Seibert | 08 January 2013
Posted in SEO Tip of the Week

So what is the best content to put on your blog?  Write what you know.  The best bloggers really know their topics or have someone write it for them.  Everyone is an expert in something, so use your blog to set you or your company up as an expert in your business.  Some great ways to generate blog ideas include:

• Look at FAQs both on your own website and the websites of competitors.  Providing answers to common questions can produce interesting, informative content for the reader and have huge SEO benefits.
• Do looks back and looks ahead.  What was going on in your industry a decade ago and how it has changed can be very interesting.  You can also take a further step to say what's next.
• Posts that relate to the seasons can be effective.  Changing seasons effect everything we do, including business cycles, shopping trends, etc.  Examples of posts can be "how to winterize your pipes", when to change our furnace filter, best times to purchase computers and TVs, etc.
• Look for trending topics on Twitter as well as 'liked' posts on Facebook.
• Sometimes major news stories can be applied to a business or industry.
• Articles in trade publications can trigger ideas.

Another way to provide great content is to look at having other experts contribute.  While you may be an expert in your field, it never hurts to look to other industry authorities that are not direct competitors.  You can interview other people in the industry, which provides them exposure and they might return the favor.  Have the CEO or President write a post once a month, if they don't already, to make customers feel secure in the company they have trusted with their business.

Search engines love fresh, varied content on your website and the best way to get it there is a blog.  In our next installment, we will look at types of content and what to do to increase the visibility of your blog.

Written by Lesa Seibert | 22 October 2012
Posted in SEO Tip of the Week

Last week we talked about the importance of reviews on your business listing pages.  The quantity of reviews on Google Places carries a great deal of weight, but close behind are reviews on other portals such as Yelp, Merchant Circle, Bing Business Portal, Yahoo! and more.  Do keep in mind that the search engines are smart enough to track the number of positive reviews over a short period of time, so don't have all your customers go post on the same day but ask a few a week and you will be good.

The main trend that influences local search marketing and placement is social media.  The role that Facebook, Google+, Twitter and others play in gaining higher search rankings is critical.  The increase in the number of +1's, shares and adds a site receives can positively influence placement over time.  The amount of check-ins (FourSquare, Facebook, etc.) may also influence the position of a local website.  Posts made on social platforms (blog posts, informational links, videos, etc.) that link back to your website also provide great inbound links which can boost search placement as well.

Some of the most viable business portals that your company should be listed on are:

• Google Places
• Bing Business Portal
• Yahoo! Business Listings
• Localeze
• Yelp
• FourSquare (retail and restaurants)
• Merchant Circle
• Superpages.com
• CitySearch
• Hot Frog
• Angie's List

The main focus in achieving local search success is to provide accurate, engaging content, getting well written customer testimonials and having viable inbound links to your site from social and business portal platforms.

Written by Lesa Seibert | 15 October 2012
Posted in SEO Tip of the Week

Google is a main portal for persons seeing information about local businesses.  Is your Google Places pages claimed and updated to provide current, useful information to those looking to find you? If you want to be successful in local search, start out by claiming and optimizing the local business listings offered by the search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo!.  Then make sure your website is updated and optimized for search, you have customer reviews, case studies or testimonials available and social integrated with your site.

Because Google dominates the majority of local searches on the Internet, their Places Pages for business is a must to have updated and popluated with company information.  If you have not set up your Places Page, keep in mind that the age of a Places Page carries search weight with Google, so get started.  If you don't know how, contact someone who can help you.

The Google Places page can be the first impression someone gets of your company, so you want to make sure it is current.  Sometimes basic info like address, phone number, etc. can be wrong, which can cause you to lose business. Also make sure you are listed in the correct industry categories to get the most visibility for your business.  Use of location-specific keywords in the title or description can be helpful if not overdone.  It also helps to add photos and videos, if available, to provide a better user experience.

Another huge factor are the reviews. Encourage customers to go to your page and give you a review.  This not only helps with search but provides great information for a potential customer checking out your company.

Check back next week for a listing of the most prominent business portal listings and see where you should be listed online.

Written by Lesa Seibert | 25 June 2012
Posted in SEO Tip of the Week

 

 

There is a lot more to securing first-place and first-page rankings than in-bound links and personal connections. To understand that you will need to research the mechanics of SEO and more specifically the meta-data of your websites individual pages. We have looked at analyses of the top listings and drawn some conclusions to help your website dominate the search results pages.

Meta-data (page title and description) was once the single-most important factor in search placement, but not any longer. Meta-data has now been reduced in importance becuase sites uses sneaky SEO practices to stuff keywords into Meta-data to gain ranking.  Now, the title tag and description tag are key and here is what to do with them.

There are some general best practices for meta data. First and foremost, it is imperative that each page feature unique (not replicated elsewhere) titles and descriptions that reflect the content on that particular page. Another best practice is to write for readability and the optimal user experience – meaning it should be descriptive and appealing to users. Finally, since there is limited virtual “real estate” on search engine results pages, the length of titles is limited.  Something you should also pay close attention to is that Google does not always return the description that is available on the website, but often returns a content section from the page that most closely matches the users’ specific query. That being said, there are times when the description is used – so we’ll look at that as well.

These “best practices” are easier said than done, of course. But by looking at the search results pages periodically, and, more specifically, at the first-page results (and the first few listings), we can gain an idea of what’s working – or at least what’s most important to the search engines.

To conduct your own test, make sure you are not "logged in" to Google or Bing, as that can influence the search results.

Google Test

Keyword Phrase: Romantic Valentines Ideas
We found that in the top ten listings were using the maximum allowable length for titles on Google. The average title length of the ten sites returned was 44 characters with spaces. Just one site on the search results page for this query did not have either the title or description provided on the site. The maximum description length on this query was 160 characters (with spaces) and the lowest was just 80 characters. The average description length was 138 characters.

Search Engine: Bing

Keyword Phrase: Romantic Valentines Ideas
Bing actually did a better job of providing a more universal search experience. The first listing was actually a section dedicated to news (one primary listing, two secondary listings – titles only), and had a section dedicated to related images. Also, unlike Google, Bing provided its related search area under the second organic listing. Finally, Bing featured an indication of the freshness of results with two that were indicated as published within the past one day.

Every listing on Bing used the title provided by the website listed. Just one of the ten sites returned (consequently, a Google Blogspot site) featured the exact description provided by the site. The average title length on Bing was 45 characters (with spaces) and the average description length was 136. Five listings used the maximum allowable description length, and just one listing used the maximum title length.

*study results from Website Magazine