Social Media Marketing in Philadelphia

Increasingly, large numbers of people are getting online around the world, and those people are using search engines like Google to find what they need no matter what it may be that they are looking for or want. This is especially true for local business owners. Local SEO can make the difference between people finding your business within your local market or finding your competitor instead.

The issue of your competitor having better SEO than you do is never more pressing or more relevant than when it comes to local SEO results. If your business is regional in nature, then having your competitor’s SEO results triumph over yours is a very significant issue and one that is definitely worth your attention.

Small businesses looking to make the most out of their Internet presence need to think about SEO in a variety of different dimensions, including local SEO when applicable. Researching relevant keywords via tools such as the Google Keyword Tool is the first step in devising an effective SEO strategy.

Through the Google Keyword Tool, you can learn what keywords you should be focusing upon. In part, this is done by finding out what keywords people are looking up and how competitive they are and then incorporating those keywords into your website strategy.

There are a few different ways that you can include these keywords into your site. The most obvious is, of course, to put them in your website text itself. Another way is to embed those keywords in your blog postings and articles. This can be a highly effective way to increase your website’s traffic, as search engines like Google will be able to find you and index your site as being relevant on a given subject. In turn, this means that those performing Internet searches are more likely to find your results and not your competitors.

By taking the time to invest in proper local SEO for your site, you will be doing more than giving yourself an edge over your local competition. It is key that you keep in mind that more and more people are making their buying decisions through the research they are uncovering online.

If a potential customer or client can’t find you online, then you simply don’t exist for them and that means their valuable business will go elsewhere. Smart local SEO can change all of this allowing your potential customers to readily find you.

First of all, when your website has a blog, it is no longer static. This means that you can constantly add new content. In fact, due to the fact that a blog is easy to update, you can add this content on your own and won’t need to constantly involve contracting a web designer every time you wish to post new information about your company’s products and services.

The more content you add to your blog, the more traffic it will receive from the search engines. Therefore, once your website has a blog, be sure to update it as often as possible. The search engines love websites that have fresh new content as this keeps them coming back for more over and over again.

The engines also love sites with a lot of pages, and each time you write another blog entry, your website will become more vast. This will give you some priority over websites with fewer pages. Visitors can find out about your blog through RSS feeds when you post new articles. Each time you post a blog, the RSS pings your entry (alerts the search engines) and these new results are indexed.

Blogs also offer the opportunity for you to insert popular keywords that are relevant to your business. Working with an SEO specialist will allow you to uncover these highly trafficked keyword phrases related to your niche. When you start inserting these terms into your blog entries and tags, it will enable people searching for these terms to find your site. These new visitors may very well become valuable clients or customers.

Another benefit of a blog is that it is a natural fit for social networking sites. This means that you can tweet your blog entries and post them on Facebook fan pages as well. Facebook and Twitter will provide valuable backlinks to your site. Additionally, once you have a blog, there is the opportunity for you to receive links from other blogs as well.

Of course, websites without blogs can also receive plenty of traffic. However, the bottom line is that if you are seeking to take full advantage of all that the web has to offer your business, it only makes sense to add a blog.

There are actually three types of local search results, so let’s start by defining what those are. There are paid results such as the Google Ad Words program whereby you pay per each individual click on the ad to drive traffic to your website (referred to as Pay Per Click or PPC).

Next, you have the local map result, which includes Google Places, Bing local and Yahoo local. Let’s look at Google Places as an example considering Google is the 800-pound Gorilla on the search engine block. If you’ve ever done a local search, you’re no stranger to the map that shows up at the top or right hand side of the search results page.

You’ll also have noticed listings with the map pushpin next to them as well as the ratings and reviews associated with the listing as well. This is a separate presence that you create for FREE within Google, whereby you can advertise the products and services you offer locally.

Lastly, you have the organic or natural search results, which are the FREE unpaid results that are traditionally the most desirable pieces of search engine real estate that drives most search engine optimization programs. It has been noted that the natural listings are more desirable for searchers to click on above and beyond the paid results making them more powerful.

To completely dominate a local niche you use the above triple threat. The paid ads are a great way to drive immediate traffic to a site but from a search engine optimization standpoint, let’s focus on the Local Maps and Organic results. These two strategies when used together have a synergistic effect on your Local SEO.

It is important to understand when positioning yourself locally that the keyword phrases you’re optimizing for generally include what’s referred to as a local modifier. This is the actual location of the product or service you are searching for used as part of the search phrase. For instance, if you were searching for pest control in Philadelphia you would optimize for the phrase “Philadelphia Pest Control” or “Pest Control Philadelphia” as opposed to just “Pest Control”.

With Google places, you can add keywords into the listings description but your physical address as well as the business categories you choose when creating the listing ultimately define where you show up. You want to make sure that the physical address of your listing and the address appearing on your website are consistent so search engines such as Google can make the connection.

What’s interesting is that recent changes in Google’s algorithms often mix both the Google Places result with the organic search results making your Google Places listing a mandatory part of your local SEO plan. When used in combination with a solid onsite and offsite optimization plan, you can dominate your local market on the search engines.