Google Local Business SEO Strategy Guide

3 Local SEO Tips

As a local business owner you should always have an eye out for your local business listing rank position. Google reports, “97 percent of consumers conduct a search for local businesses before shopping.” That number is damn close to 100 percent which means you better crack Google’s local listing pack (3 pack, 7 pack, or 10 pack) if you want to be competitive in your local business space.

Now granted that the biggest factors in local search rank position seem to be your business name, address, and business category; there are three other controllable factors for which you can help your business earn a top local rank position.

1). Use of Authority Citations

One of the quickest ways to help Google verify your local business listing and to also increase your local business rank position is to have other websites mention your business name, address, and phone number in proximity to each other. When another website mentions your business including your address and phone number this is known as a “citation”. A citation is viewed from Google as verification that you business does in fact have the address and phone number that you have listed on your place page.

Google looks for citations on the web in order to verify your physical business address. Each citation helps Google feel more confident that your physical business address is correct on your listing and is not fake by means of stealing a local search listing position. (Imagine businesses creating fake addresses in order to steal search positions in cities and states where they do not have a physical store location.)

Citations help Google not only verify your listing but helps to determine the order in which listings rank. In scenarios where several business may have the same criteria for a rank position Google may turn to the number of citations and the prominence of those citations to determine which local listing deserves the position. Google’s location prominence patent states that, “the highest score of documents referring to the business” will indeed serve as a ranking factor in its algorithm.

Local SEO Action Tip: Increase the number of citations for you business using other local directories!

2). Use Inbound Anchor Text

Location keywords in anchor text will also help your business earn a higher local rank position. Location specific inbound anchor text is also seen by Google as verification that you business provides service in a particular geographic region. Although inbound anchor text is not known to be as big of a ranking factor as citations are, there is no doubt that it will certainly aid in your local search rank position.

Local SEO Action Tip: Increase the number of location-specific inbound anchor text links!

3). Ask for Google Reviews

Google reviews help your business rank position for several reasons. First, reviews helps Google to verify your listing. Secondly, revie ws also imply that people are visiting your place page. For every place page visit by a logged in Google user, that page becomes indexed in that user’s search history. Thus it is more likely your business place page will be a search result for that same user in the future as a result of Google most significant algorithm change known as, Search Plus Your World.

Local SEO Action Tip: Ask your customers to leave your business a review!

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How Siri is Changing Local SEO Forever

Siri To Push Local SEO

Siri on the iphone 4S is your virtual assistant that will help you to send text messages, emails, schedule meetings, place phone calls, set reminders, answer questions, search the web, and more. To put it simply Siri is revolutionizing how people interact with their cell phones. It will soon be long ago in which people used their hands to operate their cell phone. Siri is redefining “hands-free” technology and with this change in technology comes a change in how people will use their cell phones.

Siri Will Change Search

With the invention of Siri one can expect the number of internet searches to increase. When gadgets become easier to use people use them more. This is a fact. You can expect that Siri will have people using their phone even more than they currently do because voice command saves time and is easier than typing on a small keypad.

You can expect Siri will have people searching for local businesses more. When people need to find a restaurant, hotel, coffee shop, laundry mat, bookstore, massage parlor, lazer tag arena, or a local golf frisbee course you can bet they will use Siri and or any other future cell phone assistant to request information.

Siri Will Change Local SEO

Imagine you are driving in your car and you decide you are hungry for a sandwich. So you whip out your cell phone and ask Siri for options for local sandwich shops. Which shops will she recommend? Which shops will Siri even index as an existing option?

Siri will list those sandwich shops that she knows to exist within the same proximity. Where does Siri gain her information? She simply searches the web herself and returns what she finds to you. Thus in this scenario Siri will list those sandwich shops which she finds most readily online. In the end those sandwich shops with the best local SEO will be listed.

As a local business owner Siri should be your best friend. People are out there asking Siri to find your business. The question is whether or not your current local SEO campaign is helping Siri to find you.

10 Mind Bending SEO and Social Media Stats

Ten Incredible Social and Search Stats

It is no secret that “inbound marketing”, a term coined by the genius’ at Hubspot, is beginning to dominate traditional marketing. Search Engine optimization and social media is powerful in theory because it is based upon providing consumers the information they want to see and hear where and when they want to see and hear it. Unlike traditional marketing and interruption advertising, inbound marketing delivers a message in the right context. As the social and search bandwagon grows larger more statistics allow marketers to understand just how gigantic a movement online marketing has become. Below are ten mind bending SEO and Social Media stats to juice up your Monday spirits.

1). Every minute more than 500 tweets contain YouTube Links. (SEO Chat, 2011)  TWEET THIS!

2). Firms generating 60% or more of their leads online are 2X more profitable than those generating less than 20% of their leads online. (HubSpot, 2011) TWEET THIS!

3). In the past 4 years, the web has gone from 100 million websites to 250 million. (Source: Netcraft, Dec 2010) TWEET THIS!

4). 67% of consumers conduct research online prior to purchase during the holiday season. (Source: Post Holiday Learnings for 2011 Google/OTX, Jan 2011) TWEET THIS!!

5). In 2011, the average shopper consults 10.4 sources prior to purchase, twice as many as a year ago. (Source: Google/Shopper Sciences, Zero Moment of Truth Macro Study, U.S., Apr 2011) TWEET THIS!

6). 53% of searchers purchase as a result of a smartphone search online. (Source: Google/OTX, The Mobile Movement, U.S, Apr 2011) TWEET THIS!

7). 43% of US adults say they’d be willing to give up beer for a month if it meant they could keep accessing the internet on their smartphones. (Source: Google/OTX, The Mobile Movement, U.S, Apr 2011) TWEET THIS!
 
8). 82.6% of internet users use search. (Source: eMarketer, July 2011) Tweet This!
 
9). 16% of the daily queries on Google have never been seen before. (Source: Google Internal Data 2011) Tweet This!!
 
10). 88% of US companies over 100 employees will use social media for marketing by 2012. (Source: eMarketer, November 2010) TWEET THIS!!

Google Plus Makes Search More Social

Google Introduces “Post” and “Circles” Button To Search Results

We all know how frequently Google updates its search algorithm and thus we knew it would not be long before Google brought ties to search results and its new social network. In fact Google announced earlier this week the that search results on their search engine will now include recent “posts” from a brand’s Google+ brand page plus the ability to add that brand to your “circles” on the Google+ network. So it has begun that search is becoming increasingly social.

For now Google is slowly rolling out this feature to all brands and all search result pages. A screen shot below demonstrates exactly what a results page will soon look like.

As you can see the query is, “WWE.” The first result is of course the WWE website. Underneath you find snippets of the WWE website and links to corresponding pages. One of these snippets is now the corresponding Google+ brand page. In the screen shot above this snippet is inside the red box. As you can see it includes the most recent status update from the brand page itself. In the upper right hand corner you have the opportunity to add this brand to your friend circles.

The implications of these social search results is great for marketers. Essentially Google is forcing all organizations to create a Google+ brand page and to actively update this page with information pertaining to the target audience. Companies that participate will appear much higher in search results than those that do not simply by rule of “relevant search.” Relevant search refers to a portion of Google’s algorithm which provides search results based upon your search history. As long as you haven’t cleared the cache or cookies on your computer, Google provides you information based up on your search history. Now with a social element added, if you are logged into your personal Google account when you search, results will be tailored to those Google+ brand pages that you subscribe to along with the interests of your friends within your “circles”. To summarize Google is meshing your interests and your friend’s interests with the results they will provide you via their search engine.

Refuse to be Social and Pay the Price

Those companies that refuse to be “social” online will now suffer the consequences in Google’s search results with a lower website grade and ranking. Plain and simple, if your company does not have an updated Google+ brand page that is linked to your website, Google is essentially going to index your website as “incomplete”. Thus you will be ranked lower than your competitors who are participating in social and who are taking advantage of relevant search results.

We are curious… are you in support of Google’s changes to bring the aspect of social into search?

Google Implements 500 Improvements to its Search Algorithm Every Year!

How Google Improves Upon its Search Algorithm

Google Search Algorithm

Google has long been adjusting their search algorithm to reflect the best interests of Google users 

We see several improvements come into play each and every year. Recently Google made it clear just how many changes are made to their search algorithm each year. Google is reporting that they make over 500 improvements to the search algorithm each year. That is well above one and a half adjustments made on average to the algorithm each day and could be closer to two when all is said and done. Here is a video on how Google goes about improving their search algorithm.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5RZOU6vK4Q



3 Reasons Why SEO is Crucial For Large Businesses

The Importance of Search Engine Optimization for Large Corporations

The importance of search engine optimization for smaller businesses cannot be mistaken. Lets put it this way, without a strong internet presence it is very difficult for a small company to ever become big. With that said SEO is just as crucial for a large business as it is for a small one. Lets take a closer look at three reasons why SEO is crucial for big brands.

1). Remain Competitive Amongst the Big Dogs

Big businesses have a lot to gain from a strong internet presence. However, they also have a lot to lose including potentially millions of dollars in sales to a list of online powerhouse ecommerce websites such as Amazon, Ebay, Zappos, and company.

Then there are are those large businesses which only provide a service. How do they plan to continuously acquire new clients at the same rate as their competition if they are not on the first page of Google? 90% of consumers conduct online research before purchasing a new product or service. Of that 90% a whopping 70% don’t browse past page one of search results. Thus 63% of consumers will be influenced by a resulting webpage on page one of search engines for the product or service they are looking for. If a large business is not gaining a piece of this 63% then they will not be competing as a top dog in their industry very long.

2). Squash Smaller Businesses

Big businesses have the advantage of low cost of goods and the ability to offer a lower selling price. Essentially a large business can stomp out all smaller competitors by simply not forfeiting their online target market.

3). Continue to Grow

Search Engine Optimization is the foundation of inbound marketing. Big businesses must continue to invest in online visibility as much as they do traditional marketing in order to continually gain a larger piece of their target market. The most efficient way to gain online exposure is by attracting massive amounts of website traffic via search engines. In other words big businesses need a ramped up SEO campaign to rank on page one of search engines for every industry related search term. There should be no ifs, ands, or buts about it.

What are your thoughts? What are some other reasons why SEO is crucial for large businesses?

La Jolla Search Engine Optimization

La Jolla, California is home to several amazing beaches, restaurants, and night clubs. It is a favorite suburb of San Diego to both tourists and local San Diegans alike. A few members of our DinoMite SEO team actually surf La Jolla Shores every morning and thus our company has made several efforts to provide our services to local businesses in the area.

If you know of a La Jolla restaurant, health club, business, night club, retail store, or individual who is in need of a stronger online web presence then please contact the DinoMite team. We would love to help out another local business and can offer up to 20% off to friends and family!

What is Keyword URL Mapping?

Keyword URL mapping is the process of determining which page of a website should contain certain keywords to maximize the optimization of the entire website as a whole. A lot of times optimization is only directed at the homepage of a website. This is not the best strategy simply because it is impossible for any one page of a website to be top loaded with several keywords. Each page of a website needs to be optimized for only a few keywords for it to have a chance to rank highly for any one keyword phrase search.

The best practice is to dedicate specific pages of a website to be optimized for specific keyword terms and to thus to spread your keywords out over each page of your entire website. Keyword URL mapping is the process of doing just this.

Search Engine Optimization in Vista

Dinomite SEO offers search engine optimization on both a local and national basis. We are located in Vista, California and can help your business website to rank on page one of search engines for the city of your choice. Primarily we service businesses within San Diego which include Vista, Carlsbad, Del Mar, La Jolla, Carmel Valley, Temecula, and Clairemont.

If you are interested in learning more about our services please contact us. Our friendly and knowledgeable staff would love to answer any questions that you may have.