Comments on: The Local Search Engine Optimization Cheat List

By: Semi Truck Financing

Semi Truck Financing — Wed, 19 May 2010 22:43:03 +0000

This is the perfect how-to list for anyone local trying to get their business found in Google Local Search! Thanks very much for it, this is a guide I've been looking for.

By: Semi Truck Financing

Semi Truck Financing — Wed, 19 May 2010 17:43:03 +0000

This is the perfect how-to list for anyone local trying to get their business found in Google Local Search! Thanks very much for it, this is a guide I've been looking for.

By: SEOP.com

SEOP.com — Tue, 18 May 2010 08:38:46 +0000

Good checklist to check, especially for starting SEOs. But can be of big help even for those who have been doing campaigns for some time. I myself will try some of the points presented in this article. Thanks to the author for the share.

By: Samuel

Samuel — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 07:58:53 +0000

I have read many articles on Local Search ranking factors and this is by far the most informative and to the point. Thank you!

By: wiwi

wiwi — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 05:21:27 +0000

Where do you add the hcard? at the contact info page?

By: Jan Riley

Jan Riley — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 23:03:18 +0000

Ann GREAT checklist! This should keep most local business owners busy until March ( or later) the only thing I would add is to do keyword research FIRST, and to include optimized videos. We get lots and lots of front page spots with local keyword targeted videos combined with social media. When done on a regular basis it provides not only traffic and linking, but a more personal way to interact with local customers. Local businesses have ONE HUGE strategic advantage - the ability to communicate more personally. Video can help them leverage this natural asset. Here is an article "4 Ways to Use VIDEO to Engage Visitors and Increase Sales" that shows some simple and effective ways to utilise video.

By: Maria

Maria — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:27:58 +0000

Great SEO Cheat List! Those are def some of the top tips one needs to market their business, particularly a local business. If one is using social sites, which a lot of businesses should also use, they can list their business in local listings that some social sites provide. A good local search marketing blog is at http://seo-voyage.com/blog, there are a lot of good tips there too.

Thanks for sharing these, I really like the one about having a list of your local competitors.

By: GrowMap @Internet Strategist

GrowMap @Internet Strategist — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:07:56 +0000

There are some other more complicated tasks that the very best SEO experts do such as moving as much code off page as possible. For many businesses it simply makes more sense to focus on what they do and hire specialists to manage certain tasks such as SEO.

While many CAN learn to do this themselves each person should ask themselves whether that is the best use of their time, how much they are willing to invest in learning and research, and especially are they going to actually get it done?

As with most other tasks, there is a huge difference between mediocre SEO (think blog comment spam and poorly written articles) and hiring the very best who have years of experience and already know what the most effective methods are so they can focus on priorities.

For the record I am not an SEO and only rarely assist businesses with that type of work (although I sometimes do). I am simply pointing out that not all SEOs are equally effective and many businesses would be far better off seeking out and hiring the very best – especially if they are in a very competitive field like mortgages or insurance.

The way to find out who really is good at it is to get recommendations from others who have been in a position to evaluate their work and know kind of results they have obtained. @MikeTek of UnstuckDigital recently wrote a post called Wanna Buy a Lemon that speaks to this subject quite well.

I regularly teach bloggers and business owners about anchor text and keyword research and most find deciding which keyword phrases to target challenging. They either select phrases that are far too general and too competitive or far too specific.

Ranking for phrases no one ever searches on is useless and getting someone ranked for that type of phrase is a common ploy of bad SEO companies and con artists. If you don’t target the best keyword phrases your SEO efforts will be weak at best.

By: Elizabeth Crandall

Elizabeth Crandall — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 16:09:39 +0000

We are a “local” business in Wheeling, IL —- which is a suburb of Chicago. I serve the entire Chicagoland area – which is comprised of about 100 towns and villages. I want to “win” in Naperville, in Barrington, in Chicago, in Wheeling — anywhere our company goes to do home modifications for people with disabilities. SO — I don’t want to emphasize Wheeling too much because it might limit our results. How do we incorporate all of these 100 different town/village names across out 150+ website?

By: Collin Holmes

Collin Holmes — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 00:46:40 +0000

Very easy to follow straightforward checklist. You hinted toward claiming your listing on most of the major sites, except Google Maps, which shouldn’t be left out due to their dominance. I’d also add that businesses should get listed on their local chamber of commerce sites. When Google picks up this reference, it’s treated as an important citation that can really increase their rankings. Also, if you hadn’t heard, Citysearch is letting you add listings again, so that’s a great place to add a listing if not already there.