Keywords for Local Business

For those of us that want local business, be absolutely sure to include the name of your city, or the area/suburb of your city, as the central theme for your keyword strategy. Furthermore, it should be the first word in any keyword phrase.

It’s much easier to rank high for a keyword along with your city name than trying to outrank the entire world for that keyword!

Note: Be sure and register your local business address in as many places as you can. Directories are a great place to register. For example, on Google Maps, Yelp, YellowPages, Yahoo Local, Bing, BBB.org, Angies List, Superpages, Citysearch.

Popular Directories

Here is a short list of major directories:

• BingPlaces.com
• Smallbusiness.yahoo.com/local-listings
• Dmoz.org
• YellowPages.com
• SuperPages.com
• LinkedIn.com
• MerchantCircle.com
• Yelp.com
• AngiesList.com
• CitySearch.com
• Yellowbot.com
• Whitepages.com
• BBB.org
• Manta.com
• Foursquare.com

Keywords Near Top of Code

You want the first sentence of text to appear as close to the top of the HTML code as possible. Therefore, look at your HTML code. Make sure your first sentence of text (hopefully with your keywords in it) appears as close to the Body Tag as possible. The Google spiders start at the top of the code and read down – just like humans do. The body tag appears up top right under the Head information. Hit those spiders right up front! Below is an example of the code form teh “Head” area. The body are is directly below this. It’s the top of the body area that you want your keywords to appear close to.

Industry Jargon Keywords

Be aware of Industry Jargon, street jargon, and politically correct jargon. We all learned early on in marketing 101 of English class that it’s always better to “speak the reader’s language” when writing anything. The common public might not be searching for the keywords from your industry jargon. It does not matter if your words are technically correct. The terms that folks are using in real life, and therefore plugging into Google, is what matters.

Technical jargon examples include “HVAC repair” when folks are just searching for “heater repair” to get their broken heater fixed.

Politically correct examples might be “Visually Impaired” versus “Blind” or “Stewardess”, versus “Flight Attendant”—you get the picture.

Real World Example: See some examples on using industry jargon from Greg’s manufacturing business: “Laptop” computers versus “Notebook” computers and “Concrete” versus “Cement”.

Dell, Apple, and HP don’t make laptop computers. In fact, they would rather you not use them in your lap. They make “notebook” computers.

Greg patented his laptop stand in 2003, and started optimizing for keywords.  He could have chosen the technically correct term “notebook stand” However, he knew that the common public was searching for “laptop stands”.

Another example is in his concrete countertop business.  Technically concrete is made up of: Cement + Sand + Aggregate + Water.  However, many people refer to concrete as “cement”  Therefore, he optimizes for both words. Cement countertops and concrete countertops.

Google Keyword Tool – Re-named Google Keyword Planner

The Google Keyword Planner is your best resource for finding the most popular keywords for your business. It’s free and easy to use.  This tool is part of the Google Adwords program. Adwords is an advertising program for Google and can be seen with a few Sponsored Ads that show up at the top and on the right side of the Search Results Page. You will need to register for a Google AdWords account. However, you do not have to actually buy any ads to use the tool. By the way, we are a fan of the Google AdWords program—another topic for another book, because all we talk about is the free stuff in this book.

You can type in a keyword that you think is popular and Google will list the number of times people search on it by region. They also list the competitiveness of the keyword, which is based off the number of people advertising for that keyword on their Adwords program. One strategy would be to look for keywords that are highly searched, with low competition.

One of the best features we like about this tool is that it will suggest other keywords that might be related to our keyword based on people’s searching habits. These suggestions always surprise us as to what the common public is searching for in our industry. We’re sure they will surprise you too, which is exactly why we say, “Don’t get hung up on your industry jargon, or even the technically correct word.”

Click Here to sign up or log into the Google Keyword Planner

HTML SEO

The programming code follows an overall basic structure and hierarchy, much the same as a letter you would write. It starts at the top and reads left to right. At the top there is a brief section called the Head, and then the Body is next. The head contains our very important Meta Tags and other overall instructions affecting the look and feel of the website. We’ll discuss meta tags shortly. The body contains all the text, images, and layout of the website.

It’s important to know that the Google spiders read the code much like we read a letter. They start at the top; therefore, they value what’s at the top more than what’s at the bottom.

See an example of HTML code below:

Help with Content Creating

We realize that for some business owners, creating content is kind of a daunting task, especially in the beginning. Maybe you’re not that comfortable writing copy, communicating on social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook, taking pictures, or creating video.

Here are some of our favorite resources to help you create awesome content or least give you a head start click here:

www.editfast.com

Search Engine Land

Search Engine Land is a a great resource for news on search engine marketing and search engine optimization.

Most industry expeerts consider this  industry publication the most authoritative source on search that covers news and information about search engines, and search marketing, SEO and SEM topics.

http://searchengineland.com/