The last column focused on the importance of SEO for local/regional firms. Today, we will take a quick look at implementation tips for successful local SEO campaigns.

Managing Your Business Description

A business description is the foundation of any search marketing strategy. A good description contains basic information such as business name, address, phone number, fax, email, Web site address and information on what your business is about. You can also include your business category, a list of products or services, areas served, payment options, and other operational information such as hours of service.

Your business description is the basic information that appears when you search for a local business on a major search engine, a local search or mapping site, a city guide, or an Internet yellow page.

Local marketers should review, enhance and list the company description on the following sites:

Local search engines, such as Google Maps, Yahoo Local, MSN Local. These local engines receive core data from the providers listed above, but most also allow marketers to submit data directly to supplement or enhance a basic listing.

National data providers, such as local directories, InfoCanada, and Strategis Canada.

YellowPages.ca, Yellow.ca, CanadianBusinessDirectory.ca, CANLINK Directories, Listings Canada, Shopping Canada, as well as city guides such as WelcomeToKelowna. These sites also depend on the national data providers but allow marketers to submit information directly as well.
It can be difficult to find exactly where and how to verify and update your business profile on all these sites. All this is a lot of work! However, all the time put into these advertising is definitely worthwhile.

Optimizing for Local Searches

As with any SEO effort, basic optimization guidelines also apply to local sites. Local site owners or webmasters must engage in keyword analysis develop relevant local content write unique, compelling page titles and meta tags implement search-friendly navigation call to action, and build link popularity improving a amount of incoming links to your site (to name just a few critical tasks).

For local Web sites, two of the most important optimization steps you can take are incorporating local search phrases on your site Web pages and properly utilizing contact information throughout the site.

Local keyword research is often less precise than a standard SEO effort. This is primarily due to local colloquialisms. For example, if you own and operate a local shoe store, it's important to know whether searchers in your part of the country use the term "sneakers", “runners” or "tennis shoes" more often. If you run a bed and breakfast in Kelowna, do people most often search for "Kelowna B&B" or "Kelowna Bed and Breakfast Inn"? People may search by the specific city, but they will also search for "Okanagan Valley." Make sure your Web site utilizes local terms and reflects the way your customers actually talk and search.

Once you've researched and identified target keywords, use these local terms and phrases in the title and meta tags on the page code, page text, page titles, link text, and other key places throughout the site.

Good luck with your Web site marketing efforts and open the online door to your store.

The Importance of SEO for Small to Medium Sized Business

This article focuses on the importance of SEO for small and medium-sized companies and presents a simple SEO program most business can and should implement to improve their website results with search engines.

Current research and surveys indicate that more and more people are going on line to find local information. It also shows that the big yellow book and newspaper classifieds are being used less often.

A recent study - Nielsen//NetRating WebVisible Study: Measuring a Website's Ability to Drive Offline Purchases for Small Businesses - indicates that more local business are experiencing offline conversions due to local search. This is the first Internet survey of its kind designed to measure the ability to drive offline conversions for local service advertisers.

Accordingly to this survey, the most commonly searched sites are:

• 36% medical services
  
• 32% automotive services
  
• 26% home or office repair services
  
• 23% financial services
  
• 9% landscaping services

Other studies and surveys have also indicated that local intent is driving up to 40% of all on line queries, even if the searcher doesn't explicitly indicate location. When you combine this increasing Internet user behavior and the fact that Google, Yahoo, and other sites now offer local search in their main page results, local/regional businesses and nation wide chains can, and should take advantage of the search for local information on-line trend.

A Different Path in Advertising

With the increasing importance of SEO and its ability to drive qualified traffic to your website and your local store, it's regrettable the most local business owners are unaware of it and not taking fully advantage of its advertising potential.

While every business person is aware of conventional advertising - yellow pages and newspaper print ads - SEO is an altogether different path, involving new marketing methods and specialized knowledge.

Different search engines use different criteria for local searches. Most marketing experts readily admit they don't know quite as much about search engine marketing, not to mention geo target search marketing -- mostly because they don’t have experience with SEO/SEM.

Local Search Drives Phone Calls and Store Visits

It is common for businesses that operate locally not to sell on line. However, if you want more customer traffic, a well-designed Web site can help. Web site calls to action will prompt customers to make a phone inquiry, faxed order, or in-store visit.

Specific, geo-target searches will drive new customers right to your door, regardless of branding. For example, if you're a Kelowna based landscaping company, a search for "landscaping design Kelowna" represents a much more qualified inquiry than a generic, search for "landscaping." However you encourage new business, SEO should be part of your marketing strategy
Your next customer might be searching on line right now.

Next month, we'll cover more specifics to help you create a successful local SEO campaign.

Recommended Local SEO Program

There are three key steps every local business can take to improve search results:
1. Develop or update the website
2. Optimize Web pages for local queries
3. Increase local Web site popularity

Develop or Update Web Site

To set up a web site you need a domain name, hosting company and a Web site design company to develop a professional (and hopefully) a search engine friendly site. Your logo is very important at this step, so take advantage of the Web site design to give your company’s logo a face lift. Don’t forget that your site should be user friendly with good Call to Action placement.

Optimize Web Pages

Geo target SEO follows basic optimization principles. This means the company or person in charge of your SEO must understand basic optimization and ensure these words and phrases are included in the page content, titles, meta tags, links, and other key places.

Increase Local Popularity

Web site popularity involves building incoming links from important, qualified sites, such as chambers of commerce, industry verticals, local directories and local professional organizations.

Don’t Guarantee High Conversions

Too many search engine marketers focus only on search engine positioning, and ignore whether or not your Web site is converting visitors into prospective clients. Top positions alone don't determine the success of a Web site you can only know if your SEO/SEM campaign is working if it is generating actual leads or sales.

Even with top rankings in organic results, using search engine optimization (SEO) campaigns can be tricky if your site has a shopping card. I find that because users often do comparison shopping, the number one position is not necessarily the best. You might get several clicks, but not always the final sale. Also, if you are working with Pay Per Click (PPC) it can become very expensive, especially when a site receives thousands of unqualified visitors. Shoppers will add items to a shopping card to learn about taxes, shipping and handling then they will move on to another site to compare prices.

On the other hand, if your Web site works more as a lead generator rather than direct sales, having the first position on an organic search is good for rankings, and great for branding. When a user sees your Web site coming up repeatedly on the top five results when using related search terms, your company name will have better exposure and gain high credibility among users.

According to branding experts the number one position in ads, directory category, and natural search results is the best branding spot. What impacts branding most, however, isn't a top search engine listing, but having a professional Web site designed to reach your target market. Usability (see article ‘User Friendly Web’) and Call to Action also play very strong roles in online branding.

Monitor your own website regularly reevaluate it from a visitors’ point of view and compare it with your competitors’ Web site. Is your site professionally designed? Is it generating prospective clients and sales? Revising your SEO strategy on a regular basis, you may find ways to decrease ad costs and improve your keywords to get a better Return on your Investment (ROI).

Summary: Your SEO campaign should bring you more than just one page visitors. High rankings are great, but they need to have a purpose. Check which campaign will bring you the best ROI, SEO or PPC. Revise your strategy every six months and whenever a search engine partners with another. It can save your company time and money.

What exactly is Search Engine Spam?

The word "spam" is mostly associated with email, as in when your inbox gets overflow with unsolicited emails from Viagra promos to Software offers. Then you have to take time to clean up your inbox before you can move on to your regular emails. Search engines have the same problem the only difference is that it takes them longer to ‘delete’ the offender from their ‘inbox’.

Search Engine Spam Definition

Accordingly to Tim Mayer, Director of Product Management at Yahoo!, spam is considered any web page that is created deliberately to trick the search engine into offering inappropriate, redundant, or poor-quality search results.

Inappropriate content is content not directly related to the actual search query. An example is a travel Web site that is optimized for “Hawaii Packages” when it only offers packages to Mexico.

Redundant content is using the same content in different pages to increase the number of pages ranked in one search query. Cloaking and doorway pages are common strategies that deliver redundant content to the search engines. Don’t confuse “Landing Pages” with “Cloak” or “Doorway Pages”. Landing Pages are legitimately designed for both search engines and visitors, offering unique content and conversion centered calls to action.

Tricks to Avoid

If a search engine discovers you are trying to trick them into giving a page higher ranking than it deserves, you could face penalties. Most of the time, a search engine will modify the algorithm so the spam pages no longer appear at the top of search results. In more extreme cases, the page itself, or the whole site, will be removed from the search engine index.
Protect your site and choose your SEO company wisely (read previous article on “Be Aware of Guarantees”). Avoid penalties by recognizing and staying aware from these kinds of spam:

Hidden text and links - Invisible, hidden or small text only for ranking purpose. All content on your Web site should be detectable by your human visitors.

Mirror pages and sites - Pages built and tailored for each search engine. Search engines have duplicate filters to detect identical or near-identical content and will eliminate pages and Web sites that offer it.

Doorway pages - Gateway, doorway, and hallway pages created specifically for obtaining high search engine positions. These do not benefit site visitors.

Cloaking - The process of delivering specific Web pages to search engines that are different from pages end users see. Search engines commonly ban the IP address of the cloaked content.

Link farming – Web sites whose sole purpose is to link to another, commonly called free-for-all (FFA) Web sites. If you participate in a link farm or a "Submit Your Site to 100,000 Search Engines" program, your site can be penalized.

"Instant" link popularity - Any SEO/SEM company promising you “instant” link popularity is doing work that will cause your Web site to be penalized. Link development takes time.

Will my Web site be really banned from search engines?

Yes. If your Web site engages in illicit SEO practices, it is possible that it will be penalized or blacklisted.

Advertising agencies, amateur Web marketers, and Web hosting companies now offer SEM services for their customers. Before you hire them, make sure they do not use spam methods to obtain top search engine positions. In an interview with Danny Sullivan, editor of Search Engine Watch, Eric Schmidt, chief executive of Google, said "We are now trying a lot harder to catch them, because there are a lot more bad guys now."

Summary: Search Engine Optimization is a new industry however, it is bound by rules as any other. When selecting a SEO company, make sure they follow search engine best practices because once a Web site has been banned from the search engines, it usually takes a lot of time and money to have it listed again.