Pimp My Keywords

Local SEO A Must For Local Businesses: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 183

Local businesses survive only by local customers who find them in search engine results and through social media.

Yes, you can claim the corner pizza business earns some business from word-of-mouth; direct mail; radio; television and, perhaps, billboard advertising.

However, the majority of all potential customers will look for more information on the business' website; read reviews from other customers and ask for suggestions or ideas from friends on social media.

Thanks for Hubspot, here's "The Ultimate List: 50 Local Business Directories" where your local business should be listed. Check out the readers' comments at the bottom of the page as well for updated listings and other local business website suggestions.

* * *

Pimp My Keywords is written by published by Purple Trout, LLC, a Cincinnati SEO firm specializing in all things search and search engine optimization.

Stick To Your Marketing Plan: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 182

It seems like something new in social media is released each week and Google announces changes in the way its search engine results will be displayed.

While it is always tempting to run and buy the shiny new toy, you must stick to your marketing plan. If you don't, you'll quickly find your business going in 20 different directions with 20 different messages. Chaos.

Stick to your plan.That's why it's called a plan.

If Google announces an algorithm change, don't panic. Review the information and review your website to make sure you're in compliance.

If Google changes its search results and decides to start including Google+ posts, don't immediately feel the need to rush and open a Google+ account and fill it with your marketing spam. It won't work and, believe me, it won't attract any newbies to your Google+ base.

Currently, there's a mad rush to Pinterest. If you follow the sheep, where are you going to find the time to join the herd? Are you leaving Twitter or Facebook behind to start working in Pinterest? Why?

And, seriously, is letting everyone know you're the Mayor of Taco Tico because you've checked in via Foursquare bringing you any new business?

Stay the course. You have a plan. Make it better. Don't fix what's broken. Don't buy into all the "this-is-what's-new-on-the-Internet-this-week" hype.

Reviews & Online Reputation: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 181

Review websites, such as Google Places, Yelp, City Search, etc. are a necessary evil. 

If a local business doesn't create an account in Yelp, then an unhappy customer can still post a bad review. In addition, your competition can post a "fake" review and make you look bad. Yelp controls which reviews are seen and which reviews are hidden based on an unknown algorithm (again, to make the system complicated and hold businesses hostage). Let's not forget, a few years ago Yelp would remove bad reviews if you purchased an ad.

While your competition and haters can hide behind fake e-mail accounts and post negative reviews, you can still protect your business and your online reputation management by following a few steps here:

• Create and claim your own business listings in Google Places, Yelp, etc.
• Make sure your profiles are accurate and 100% complete.
• Add photos, videos, coupons, etc.
• Monitor reviews.
• Respond to reviews - good or bad. This shows you're "listening" to what customers have to say. In addition, if you respond positively to a negative review and the customer doesn't reply, then it will make the review look fake and you'll actually score bonus points for trying to resolve the situation.
• Try, if necessary, to get the bad review removed. In some cases, the review might violate the website's terms of service. However, our experience has been most bad reviews never get removed, so have a plan in place if the review isn't deleted by the review website.

If you receive a bad review, investigate their claim and review their account on the listing site. In some cases, your review might be the only review they've ever written (which probably means it's a competitor or a hater).

Real people post real reviews. They have a history with the site and have posted a combination of positive and negative reviews.

 

Keyword Research: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 180

The most important step in the search engine optimization process is to make sure you are targeting and using the right keywords for your website.

Believe-it-or-not, this step is often overlooked. Too many times, business owners "think" they know what keywords customers are using to find their website. However, they are probably missing good opportunities by not doing the right research.

There are multiple websites and services you can utilize in conducting keyword research. The three tools we recommend include:

• Google Keyword Research Tool (aka Google AdWords: Keyword Tool)
• Wordtracker
• Keyword Discovery

Don't rely on one source. Do your research; read the data and then select your targeted keywords.

Is Your SEO Working?: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 179

Six ways to tell if your search engine optimization - or SEO firm - is working.

1. Are your rankings going up in Google, Bing and other search engines. This is a given. If your rankings are floundering and you're not seeing consistent improvement, then your SEO isn't working.
2. Is your inbound traffic improving month-to-month? You should see some improvements here over time.
3. Are you using the right keyword? Is your SEO firm making keyword suggestions and improvement opportunities?
4. Do you have an ongoing link building strategy to earn inbound links to your website? Most SEO projects (and SEO firms) fail miserably at link building. You don't need 100 new links every month, but you should be seeking - and earning - new inbound links consistently.
5. Are you (or your SEO firm) always looking for improvements in your website? There are many ways you can make website improvements.
6. How is your content? Are you generating new, fresh, unique, original and amazing content for your customers?

How many "no" answers did you have from the above list? One? Two? More?

Easy Link Building: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 178

Link building is the most difficult and time-consuming task in search engine optimization.

You must have inbound links pointing to your website in order to earn (and maintain) higher rankings in Google and other search engines.

Yes, you can "wait" for links to happen especially if you are publishing amazing content and it goes viral. However, in most cases, you're going to need to go hunting for link opportunities.

One cool method is to use Google to help find potential links by searching on your targeted keywords plus the word "blog" (example: food blog). You can export your search results into a nice Excel spreadsheet. Then, start visiting those blogs; comment on posts; engage with the blog writer; offer to write a guest blog in exchange for a link.

Reminder: No SPAM. Don't write a silly comment such as "nice post" and expect to get a link. Engage with them.

Google Insights: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 177

A great - but often overlooked - Google tool is Google Insights (also known as Google Insights for Search).

Google Insights offers a wealth of information including search patterns across specific regions, categories, etc.

For example:

• I used the search term "college football" within the United States over the last seven days. What was hot? "ESPN college football" with high regional interest in Alabama and Georgia.
• I used the search term "digital camera" for a product search in the United States over the last 30 days. What was hot? "Digital Camera Canon". In addition, searches for "digital cameras" was up 60% over the last 30 days, while searches for "nikon digital camera" was up 50%.
• I searched by location - Cincinnati, Ohio - and targeted the keyword "pizza" to see what's been happening over the past 30 days. The top searches were "Pizza Hut" and "Marco's Pizza" with strong regional interest in Covington and West Chester.

Test Google Insights on targeted keywords; competition; trends, etc.

Simple SEO Tasks: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 176

Sometimes, it's easy to overlook the obvious when it comes to taking your search engine optimization efforts to the next level.

Consider:

• Listen and do research.
• What are your competitors doing?
• Use a great keyword research tool, like SEM Rush and find out what keywords you should be using.
• Use Google Alerts to track your own keywords; your name; your business name, etc.
• Bookmark the good articles (from your Google Alerts) that you want to read later. Use Diigo, Stumble Upon and Delicious for tagging.
• Listen via Twitter. Search for a keyword #hashtag.
• Create your own Twitter keyword #hashtag and use it often.
• Test your headline in a Google search.
• Test your press release in your blog.
• Using the words "How To" is a great way to start a blog post.

Do you have some tips that often get overlooked?

Content Is Still King: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 175

Content is still king when it comes to search engine optimization.

Recently, Google announced there will be some more algorithm changes coming and a few updates involve content. Mainly:

• Google is going to be looking for content "above the fold" in websites. Start thinking about moving content up higher in your web pages and now below that giant Flash element.
• Fresh content is going to be important. Are you updating your website with fresh content? A blog is a great way to produce fresh content for your website.

Start writing!

Are You Monitoring Social Media?: SEO Tactics, Tips & Helpful Advice - No. 174

It doesn't matter how much (or little) your business participates in social media, you can always count on someone doing the talking for you.

Unfortunately, when soured customers, disgruntled employees, fierce competition, etc., are given the opportunity to voice their opinions to the world (via social media), things can start looking bad for your business rather quickly.

Fear not, here are some basic steps you can use to protect yourself from the bad guys:

• Monitor social media for any comments and reviews about your business. You can search Twitter, Google and other websites for particular mentions on your business, brand, product lines, etc.
• Consider subscribing to a social media monitoring service.
• Register your website/business with all online listing, mapping and review websites such as Google Places, Yelp, CitySearch, etc.
• Make sure your online listings are 100% complete and accurate. Monitor them for bad reviews.
• Have a plan in place if someone leaves a bad review. Sometimes, a negative review can be removed, if it violates the website's terms of service.
• Respond according to a negative review and try to fix the problem through the review site. This shows the public you are willing to solve the "problem."

If negative company news is announced or several bad reviews pop up, you may need to engage an online reputation management services firm to counteract bad news.