Archive for the ‘Local SEO’ Category

Social Media Marketing: Are You Optimizing Yours?

Monday, August 20th, 2012

SEO for Your Social Media…Don’t Delay!

If you own a business, you should also have a website. For your website to be working as hard as you need it to, it’s beyond important that you’re optimizing not only for Search Engines, but for your Social Media Marketing (SSM), as well. Your customers need to be able to find your business where THEY are. And they are hanging out, in greater numbers than you can imagine, on their social sites.

Social Media means more than just Facebook and Twitter, these days.

The phenomenon of monetizing and capitalizing Social Media started with Myspace, when sophisticated web entrepreneurs found a goldmine of untapped buyers. Facebook quickly overcame Myspace as the place to connect, and we all know what that did for Mark Zuckerberg’s lifestyle. Now the almost untapped places to optimize your SMM are “sharing” sites like Pinterest and Foursquare. Wherever people are spending their time online, is where YOU want to be, “talking” to the people who are the most likely candidates for your product or service.

Social Media sites can sell your products, services and ideas FOR you.

Did you know that Apple will currently sell Music, Audio and Video Information products, eBooks and apps for you, through iTunes, to their 375,000,000 customers? Mobile devices like iPad, iPhone and iPods are walking malls, and savvy entrepreneurs get in touch with them, 24/7.

Most people are completely unaware that Amazon is the largest BUYERS Search Engine in the World, holding over 200,000,000 customer’s credit cards on account. Even better, they are willing to share them all with you… For pennies! One YouTube video, done correctly, can produce more actual sales than your brick-and-mortar location. PLUS, because YouTube is a wholly own subsidiary of Google, they will give you FREE traffic on Google, just for adding your content.

Integris Marketing KNOWS Social Media.

There are, of course, thousands of other facts you need to be aware of. I have made it my business to constantly keep abreast of all the latest trends and trade secrets of Internet and Social Media Marketing, because keeping your business in front of your customers is really at the heart of what we do. “Do Good, and Prosper” isn’t just a nice thing to say, it’s my secret to success. To learn more, call us Toll-Free at 800.233.0239

Or, if you’re in the Reno, Sparks or Tahoe areas, call 775.322.3663 today.

I’m pretty darn sure you’ll be glad you did.

Writing SEO Optimized Blog Titles and Posts for Fun and Profit

Monday, August 6th, 2012

Making Great Blog Titles for SEO Requirements

Webmasters and copywriters are constantly facing one particular problem – how to create and publish content that is helpful for human users and at the same time complies with SEO requirements including optimized blog titles. No wonder that the majority of copywriters and web content creators hate SEO since often it hampers the process of content creating. Writing texts which are helpful for users is not enough these days. It is possible that you have the best blog or site in a particular niche; however, it makes no sense unless it gets traffic. In other words, in compliance with SEO rules will bury any site, keeping it out of Google 100 (as known, to get a sufficient amount of traffic it is important to rank in TOP-20). And Great Blog Titles are a overlooked and easy way to improve Google ranking performance. A great resource for more information about optimizing blog titles is here

SEO and Good Blog Content Are a Match Made In Heaven

SEO rules concern any blog posts and their parts, including titles. Yes, by writing non-optimized titles in terms of SEO, copywriters may decrease website’s chances of getting high search engine rankings. A title is an extremely important part of a blog post. Firstly, it grabs attention of potential visitors and customers and well as plays a great SEO role. Search engines use titles and keywords contained in titles to rank sites. Besides, a site title is what you see in search engines results.

Although a title is the shortest part of a blog post, it is imperative to follow certain title writing rules and norms. As already said above, a title has a dual role, i.e. helps both visitors and search engines. Listed below are 5 hot tips on how to write SEO optimized blog titles.

1. Write short blog titles.

Of course, we do not mean 1-2 words here. The best title length is about 60-70 characters. Writing longer titles is not recommended for two reasons. Firstly, search engines like Google cut down longer titles anyway. Secondly, long titles are more difficult to read for visitors. Thus, a long title is ineffective both in terms of SEO and readability. Just check the number of characters before posting the text. Of course, sometimes it is difficult to create a short and catchy title, so, think of the ways to convey the key idea with several words.

2. Identify your keywords for Google.

Perhaps, all experts would agree that using primary keywords in titles is a must. So, make sure you have primary keywords in the title. Moreover, it is recommended to use them at the beginning of the title or in the middle to help search engines index the new webpage and give Google a clue on what primary keywords for the webpage are. For instance, if you have a title consisting of 6 words, make sure the first ones are your keywords. Of course, it is imperative to avoid keyword stuffing since this will not only negatively affect readability of the title, but also may cause sanctions from Google (which are crazy these days, especially after Panda and Penguin). You are probably well-acquainted with these recent updates. Make sure to use relevant keywords!

3. Write descriptive and “catchy” titles.

Well, forget about SEO for a while and focus on creating quality content for website visitors. Blog titles should be informative and descriptive. In other words, having read the title, visitors should have an idea on what the blog post is all about. A title should grab attention and be compelling to read on. At the same time, do not fool your readers. Yes, you may write a title that will look like a newspaper screamer, i.e. truly sensational. However, when visitors find out that the blog post itself does not contain promised info or tips, they will hardly return to our blog.

4. Write original titles (No Cheating… Google will know!).

This may sound obvious for lots of webmasters and copywriters; however, duplicate content is a common problem. Make sure you create unique titles for each blog post. Sure, sometimes, involuntarily, we create duplicate contents. At the same time, it is possible to use online plagiarism detection tools to make sure the content is 100% original. As known, search engines may penalize sites for posting duplicate contents. Falling into Google’s disgrace might take a few minutes, while even experienced webmasters may need months to get the site back to top 10. So, be particularly careful with uniqueness of titles, since such mistakes can be too costly.

5. Writing for search engines is writing for people (No duh!).

Perhaps, you have met bloggers who claim they write for people, not search engines. However, it should be said that writing for search engines is writing for people since if you comply with the above mentioned rules. There is nothing wrong in creating short, catchy titles that contain targeted keywords. Why not take advantage of own or somebody else’s SEO experience and write titles that your visitors and search engines will like. You may like it or not, but we all play by these Google Panda rules. The aim of all search engines is to deliver helpful and relevant search results.

More Resources:

Want to learn more? Need help with your blogs? We can assist you!

Top 5 Reasons Why Proprietary Websites are Bad News for You

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

Proprietary Websites

Proprietary websites are everywhere; they offer cheap website designs and often, cheap hosting as well.  However, there are free or open source options that provide much better benefits. There are a multitude of issues that come with this type of website platform – our top 5 are below:

  1. Limited Design & Branding Options
  2. No Ownership or Flexibility
  3. No SEO Options
  4. No Search Engine Respect
  5. No Support

1. Limited Design & Branding Options

You are limited to the color palates, lay out templates, and widgets that they have available.

There are thousands of websites out there – and probably hundreds of businesses that do something similar to yours. So how do you stand out? Being online is important – including social media (but we’ve gone over that before); however, it doesn’t help to distinguish yourself when your website looks like everyone else’s. Your business is unique in some way, shape or form – show that to your clients!

2. No Ownership or Flexibility

You do not own your proprietary website – the creator does. If you want to move your site or use a different designer, you have to start from scratch. This is frustrating and costly as the services you have already paid for basically disappear and are wasted. You cannot take it with you when you leave – and if something happens to the business that created your proprietary website – you lose everything.

3. No SEO Options

Most websites are being created so people (clients or customers) can find them and buy the service or product you sell. The way a website is found by most people is through searching.  We enter keywords or terms we think apply to our topic and a list of relevant websites is returned to us.  These keywords or terms are coded into the back end of every webpage. Without them, your website can only be found by someone who has the exact address – so they already know you and your website.

These proprietary websites often have no way for you to set up your SEO (search engine optimization), which means no one will find your website unless you tell them how to get there. No searches will return your company and your website is pretty much useless for bringing in new clients.

4. No Search Engine Respect

If, by some miracle, your proprietary website has a special upgrade or ‘pro plan’ that will give you SEO options (for a price), you need to know one last thing: Search Engines can tell who built your website, and they don’t love proprietary site builders. If your search engine doesn’t respect your website, you are not likely to end up at the top of your target client’s search results; which means unhappiness for your business rather than increased sales and a bright new outlook on the future growth of your company and cash flow.

5. No Support

Let’s face it – things go wrong- and when they do, a great portion of our satisfaction with a service is the ability of the offender to make it right again.  Most of these proprietary websites have clunky forms, round-a-bout ways to contact them, or no human response whatsoever. When your company reputation or your personal one depends on how you respond, you need to know that you have fast, reliable support available.  This is usually not the case with a proprietary website – if you can find a way to contact them, they are not usually very efficient and an emergency on your part does not an emergency on their part make.

Our Recommendations

We have been designing and developing websites for many years – and we have learned that open source platforms are the most user-friendly, wholly owned, SEO ready, massively supported and unique option for websites today.

Platforms like WordPress, Joomla!, and Drupal make creating a customized, branded experience for your customers a simple, straight forward, and effective process for your business.

Call us today at 775-322-3663 to learn more about how Integris Marketing can help your website work for you!

Social Media – In or Out?

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

You have probably heard before, how important it is to brand your company and build authority through social media. However, some businesses are not ready or able to commit the kind of time and personnel it takes to manage a full-force online marketing campaign for their brand. There are also some barriers to internally managing these platforms; according to Towers Watson research, the main factors which prevent organizations from being able to implement needed solutions are:

  • Limited Knowledge of Social Media
  • Lack of IT Support or Technical Capability
  • Limited Staff/Resources to Implement
  • Restrictions imposed by The Company’s Legal Department
  • Lack of CEO or Senior Management Support
  • Lack of Metrics to Measure Impact

This is where out sourcing can help your brand reach its online marketing goals. At Integris Marketing, we are external experts with expertise in managing social media for business purposes. We know how powerful these platforms can be, but we also know that they must be customized to work well for your brand.

Our extensive social media knowledge and technical experience will ensure that we are able to advise you on the platform that will work best for you and your brand. Our resources are very flexible, which allows us to reallocate resources to projects as needed. We start every project off by looking at the current data for your brand, then crafting a plan that we can implement with your full support.

Some of the areas of social media that we can assist you with, include: Blogging (enhances all website content and drives internet search traffic by improving SEO); Social Bookmarking and News (can also dramatically increase website traffic by improving SEO); Social Networking (i.e. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn); Visual and Audio Social Networking (i.e. YouTube, podcasts, and photo-sharing); or even Building your own Social Network. Any posts we create for your brand will be subject to your approval in order to avoid any issues with legality and to maintain the tone that makes your brand unique.

To get started with your brand’s social media presence using a data-driven professional process, call us at (775) 322-3663 or (800) 233-0239, or contact us with your inquiry.

SEO Can Make or Break You

Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

SEO (search engine optimization) has become a necessity for being found on the internet. There are estimated to be over 153,000,000 websites on the internet.  So how do you optimize your website to be found by search engines? What separates your website from the other millions of sites out there?

One of the main things, here, is to understand how users reach your site. Meaning, what terms they type in to find your website. Reviewing this information for your site and then comparing the keywords that are found on your site by search engines, like Google, can help you see if you are on the right track with getting found. It is important to see how the content you are writing on your website matches up with the words that people are searching on the internet in order to find your site.  If these two areas are not matching up then you need to adjust your keywords on your site and in your content to match the words or phrases that people are using to search for you or your product in order to be found.

Do you know your keywords?

Often people and businesses have self-proclaimed SEO experts set up their search engine optimization, which is fine, as long as it is being done correctly.  It is important to understand what the keywords are on your website and why these words were chosen.  Don’t be afraid to ask for the reasoning behind the keywords and the list of keywords that are being used for each page of your website. This is information that belongs to your website – not the website designer or developer.  You have a right to know what is on your site and how it is being accessed.  If you aren’t sure what is on your current site, and would like to know how your SEO is ranking, feel free to call Integris Marketing today at 775.322.3663 or, for a Free Website Assessment, click here.

In-Bound Link Building Tips to Help Local (Reno) SEO

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

The Basics for In-Bound Link-Building

Easy enough. It just takes time & planning to manage your approach.

Integris Marketing Blog PostIn-Bound Link Building is Important for SEO Success. Whether Your Business is Local (Reno), Regional or International, search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing use this seemingly simple search engine ranking parameter as an indication your website’s relative popularity. This in turn influences the search engines decision in rating your relevance for search queries and ultimately affects your search engine ranking or opportunities for first page display.

In-Bound Link Bottom Line: If you don’t have inbound links and your competitors do, then to put it bluntly,  you will not rank as well as them. (Want to learn about the top Search Engine Ranking Factors… then go here >)

Here Are 2 Things To NOT Do For Building In-Bound Links

It all makes sense if you think about it or understand the industry and the sophistication of Search Engine ranking algorhythms (Here is a link to an older March 2007 article but the thrust is a solid foundational concept for this).

It really boils down to 2 things of what not to do for inbound link building:

  1. Don’t Use Link Farms (See This Wikipedia Page for more information about Link Farms). According to Google, “a site that participates in a link farm may have its search rankings penalized”, and “Links from related sites carry more weight than those from irrelevant sites”.
  2. Try not to use Off-Topic Links (Relevant On-Topic Links build credibility in the eyes of Search Engines… And yes, they do know.)

Six Basic Strategies for In-Bound Link Building

Anyone and everyone with a website should make some effort to include these 6 Link Building strategies if you are serious about top performance for Search Engine Ranking.

  1. Make More Content! – Search Engines need content in order to deliver relevant and current results to search queries. Better results from search engines mean more people will use them. This in turn makes them a better platform for advertising dollars (This is America after all). The bottom line is search engines need the new content just as much as you need to generate it, distribute it and have it link back to you. The solution is to write articles, publish them online (on a relevant blog site or an ezine or article website – There are tons of them out there such as articlebase.com).
  2. Social Media – Serious about in-bound links? Then get serious about social media. There are lots of ways to leverage this. If you don’t know how, take a class, talk to some social media guru, or just dive in. Be conscious of the appropriate linking patterns and partners out there and be careful you don’t spend too much time doing this. It can be a real time sink. Think of it as something to adopt over time and that you will keep up with. It is better to do a little dribble consistently then do a lot and then burn out and drop off the map… especially as far as Search Engines are concerned.
  3. Relevant Online Directories – Online Directories are a great place for links. That’s what they are for… listing websites. Some are free and some are pay. Do what you can to get in them and have a budget (time and $$$) that makes sense for you. Here are the biggies: DMOZ (can take a while to get listed), Yahoo (Expensive). Some other well known online directories include: Business.com, BestOfTheWeb.com, GoGuides.com and MassiveLinks.com. There are many others that have narrow niche appeal. The best approach is to identify the best ranked ones and then submit your listing to them. Rinse and repeat.
  4. Online Video – First a quick question… Do you know what the worlds second most used search engine is? If you guessed YouTube you guessed right. So Videos can get you inbound links, visibility and some brand or service awareness. If you get it right it can even go “viral”! There are tons of video sites out there (YouTube, Viddler, Vimeo to name a few). If you do video then distribute them to different sources and watch and compare results and see which ones work best for you. And be sure to have some fun along the way. (Note: Professional Video production can be quite costly. You need to balance quality and budget to get the most bang for your video buck. And don’t forget, there is always the webcam on your local computer approach if you are on a shoestring.)
  5. Online Classifieds – Yep, this often overlooked little gem will get you inbound links. Think CraigsList.org or any of the other online classifieds (some are free and some are pay). And who knows.. besides the link you get, maybe someone will buy what you are selling!
  6. Online Press Releases – Huh? That’s right.. you can distribute your own online press releases. (But I recommend hitting your local news outlets first so they can get the “scoop” before it hits the big ol’ web. It’s a professional courtesy thing.) This is a great way to get in-bound links. You can use the paid versions such as as PRweb.com or go for the free ones such as PRlog.com. As with all things online there are lots of options so be sure to compare apples to apples when it comes to getting your press release sent out online.

Hope that helps! This is the basic approach that we offer clients as starting points for their in-bound link building campaign. And if you want to share a reciprocal link with us, just send us a note or give us a call, and we will see what we can do!

WordPress Blog Design-Help Your Reno (Local) SEO

Saturday, June 5th, 2010

Hey Reno Businesses… Want a Cool WordPress Blog Design?

Who doesn’t… but what you need to know is that having a “cool blog design” is no longer enough.

An Optimized WordPress Blog Design needs to capture visitors, show value, sell products or services, capture leads and keep up with the latest web technologies.

In the old days of the web… having a website… any website, whether a traditional static website filled with words, or a site of pretty pictures or even Flash animations was enough. It had the “wow” factor… All just because you had the site.

No more… Websites have become a very sophisticated platforms that are an important part of the promotional and marketing effort. The artifacts of yesteryear,  such as the notoriously expensive, sales-rep hyped, and ineffective Yellow Page Ads or other less-than-targeted marketing vehicles and publications are becoming increasingly less effective. This is especially true for businesses who are forward thinking in their promotional approach, or have more sophisticated audiences they need to communicate with.

What’s the solution? First let’s look at what a website needs to do and fast-forward to today’s website demands before we decide.

  1. A website needs to be able to be found by people who are searching for your product or service (Think Search Engine Optimized or Local SEO)
  2. Once they see your listing on Google (Hopefully first the page of Google or other search engine) it needs to be somewhat compelling in order for people to click on the link
  3. The website needs to be inviting once they get there and give them relevant options for interaction, sales or sign-ups
  4. Convey a sense of credibility and sophistication
  5. Provide a comfortable experience that delivers value
  6. Has ways for you to engage and track visitors

A tall order for any website no matter how big your budget is. Once you start considering the cost of website design, maintenance, updating and modification, content generation, software upgrades and you have the potential for a hornet’s nest of expense, complexity and less than optimal results.

Enter the Humble WordPress Blogging Platform

The coolest, least expensive, most powerful, and highly customizable blog design platform that any business could hope for.

WordPress levels the playing field of the World Wide Web. The technology that WordPress uses, used to cost 10’s of thousands of dollars. But thanks to the WordPress and the Open Source community that supports it, WordPress has made the old expensive web paradigm a thing of the past. The powerful technology that is built into WordPress is free! And the plug-ins that support it… they are free too or are offered at a very low or modest cost.

A well executed WordPress Blog Design is the answer for what small businesses need to succeed on the web whether the need is superior design, uber-optimized SEO, or super-charged local search engine optimization.

In short, a well executed and well designed WordPress Blog embodies what the internet was designed for… optimized search engine results through relevant content generation.

If you need more information about how a WordPress Blog Design can help your business, you can give us a call (775.322.3663). But watch out, we love WordPress, so don’t be surprised if we talk your ear off.

Reno Businesses Can Dominate Local Search Engine Results (Part 6 of 6 – Conclusion)

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Part 6 of 6 – Reno SEO Expert* Shares Some Phase 1 “Secrets of Local Google Dominance”

It’s Not That Hard If You Understand a Few Basic SEO Ingredients

The Conclusion to the 5 Most Important Tips for the Do-It-Yourself SEO-preneur or Small Business Owner

  • For this mini-article, we will look at 5 areas of basic SEO concepts (Conclusion below: ). These are important to business who wants a local, top-performing search engine presence. By faithfully following this approach you will improve your Search Engine Rankings giving you superior Local Search Engine Results.

The final Tips and Summary: Top Ranking Search Engine Results Are What You Want

There are lots of SEO tips and tools to keep everything moving forward for real-world and effective search engine ranking results.

If you can incorporate these basic principles I have outlined in the previous blog posts, build on them over time, consistently implement the strategies (schedule it), and use the Right SEO Technology and you will achieve Dominance in the Local Search Engine Results.

I have seen these principles prove themselves time and again and am amazed at how fast local businesses can get to the first page of Google by following the tips I outlined. Often within 1,2 or 3 months for some basic keywords. Then just use the formula for other keywords and over time you will climb the ranks.

As my final piece of “Great SEO Tips for Small Businesses” I give you the following list of more actionable items.

  • Register with local search engines, local directories and social media portals (Think Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, AOL, Ask, Local.com and TrueLocal and many others. They all want your info so they can give the best results to the people who use their service and so they can sell more advertising!) Also be sure to use Craig’s list, Insdier pages and many other local sales and review directories.
  • Put your business name and local terms in you page titles — (not non-descript terms such as “Home page”,  “About”, “Welcome” , etc. My example is Integris Marketing | Reno Marketing Firm | Reno Graphic Design
  • Now do the same thing with your HI and H2 tags (especially using the local terms)
  • Then do the same thing with your body copy (more local terms with the service or product offered)
  • Put a Google or Yahoo or Mapquest generated map on your website with your street address… really super for local search results (just go to Google maps
  • How’s your InfoUSA listing? Or Dun & Bradstreet? Go check to make sure they are current and have your correct address, web link, etc.
  • Local News? Well you can’t compete with local papers or local info or entertainment portals, but you can add local content that is relevant to your business or your favorite causes. If you have a local mailing address where your business lives.. add that too! (On every page is a great way to go)
  • I’ve said it before and I will say it again and again.. Add a blog (One that you control on your web domain and where you can 100% control all page content. So stay away from the free blogs…even blogger)
  • Get “Local Inbound Links”! Search engines are using this kind of ranking criteria as an ever-more important element in local search results. So get into “legitimate” local directories in every way you can… Make sure they don’t just list your web site but also link with keywords for services you offer if you can.

OK… so that should be enough for most local businesses to cling to the top of the local search results. Want more success? Get your Google, Yahoo and Bing business listings, run some online display ads and you will have 3 or more places where you show up on the first page of Google… not bad for a small business these days, especially considering that over 65% of buyers look for local resources online (and some say the number is as high as 90% of all buyers use online search for local results).

*Reno SEO Expert. A paid professional who can provide measurable results and demonstrate ROI for promised SEO services and also be able to share success stories for past clients they have worked with.

Reno Businesses Can Dominate Local Search Engine Results (Part 4 of 6)

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Part 4 of 6 – Reno SEO Expert* Shares Some Phase 1 “Secrets of Local Google Dominance”

It’s Not That Hard If You Understand a Few Basic SEO Ingredients

The 5 Most Important Tips for the Do-It-Yourself SEO-preneur or Small Business Owner

For this mini-article, we will look at 5 areas of basic SEO concepts (Tip 4 below). These are important to business who wants a local, top-performing search engine presence. By faithfully following this approach you will improve your Search Engine Rankings giving you superior Local Search Engine Results.

Tip 4 of 5) Knowledge, Research, Curiosity and patience:

This aspect of Local Search Engine Ranking is partly a thinking exercise and partly a research effort. To get started just ask yourself, “What are the different things people might type in to find my services online.” Then make a list of those terms. Even though Google and Bing are aware of your location it helps if you tell them you are looking for local results so be sure to include “Reno” or “Sparks” or “Truckee Meadows” with your keyword phrases if you are searching in this area for best local search engine results.

Next see what happens when you search using your keywords list you just made. Make lots of tabs and notes and visit the top-ranking sites that came in from your search (just look at the top 3 or so) and see what you can gleen from their site.

Learn from these top performers. If you know how, and I recommend you learn the basics of how, look at the source code of the top-performing websites and get an idea of the keywords, header tags and meta-descriptions they are using. Look at how their information is organized on the page, look at how many words are on the page and what words are at the top middle and bottom. Get curious and take the Sherlock Holmes approach. You will be amazed at what you will learn if you look closely enough. Then take notes that you can use to implement their success tactics.

And if see something you don’t understand… look it up or hire a SEO consultant (Yes, we do that too!) to help you understand what you are up against.

Now this is a simplistic overview but it will yield results for any competitive local market. But you have to invest the necessary time and you have to commit to making incremental progress.

So get started, be patient and watch your results. I guarantee you will make headway if you incorporate this approach.

One note of caution. Older websites and domains have quite a bit of advantage here. All things being equal, Search Engines will give older sites a higher ranking. So in order to overcome this you have to be better on your subjective quality score.

Coming next: “Time and Commitment”. Date for next post will be March 12, 2010

*Reno SEO Expert. A paid professional who can provide measurable results and demonstrate ROI for promised SEO services and also be able to share success stories for past clients they have worked with.

Reno Businesses Can Dominate Local Search Engine Results (Part 3 of 6)

Monday, March 8th, 2010

Part 3 of 6 – Reno SEO Expert* Shares Some Phase 1 “Secrets of Local Google Dominance”

It’s Not That Hard If You Understand a Few Basic SEO Ingredients

The 5 Most Important Tips for the Do-It-Yourself SEO-preneur or Small Business Owner

For this mini-article, we will look at 5 areas of basic SEO concepts. These are important to business who wants a local, top-performing search engine presence. By faithfully following this approach you will improve your Search Engine Rankings giving you superior Local Search Engine Results.

Tip 2 of 5) SEO Strategy:

The BEST and LOWEST COST SEO Technology for Small Businesses

In a word: WordPress. Our website is built on it (and so is this blog) and as of this writing (March 8, 2010) we are at 38 days of being live and we are quickly eclipsing several local firms who have been around for years. And if we can do this so can you! We went from no-where’s-ville to actually getting page 1 Google ranking for several primary and secondary keyword phrases… And we are just getting started.

Why WordPress? Because it works. Not only as a base package but also because there are a slew of 3rd party plugins that will Super-charge your Local SEO Performance unlike those low-cost “website builders” or “website generators” out there with all sorts of marketing hype attached to them. The problem is they all stink from the perspective of SEO (IMHO). They just under-deliver when it comes to SEO because they are not built on a strong understanding of what it takes to succeed with top-ranking SEO Performance.

But just because WordPress is “Free”, be sure to NOT use the “free WordPress themes” out there, but instead, opt for professional themes that are designed to be optimized for SEO. These are built with better code and also don’t have the built-in back-links to nefarious websites that can get you black-listed in Google (Not a good thing). Also be sure to include a solid set of 3rd party plug-ins or choose a WordPress template  that is already set up to optimize your site for the leading search engines, most notably, Google and Bing.

And remember, search engines are the friend of local businesses and should be apart of your online marketing strategy, no matter if you are in Reno, Sparks, Tahoe or New York City. Most people use the internet to find local businesses they can buy from.

So whether you are on a budget and just getting started, or if you are an established business with a strong website, WordPress, if set-up and managed consistently, can help you with your local search engine rankings. I like to think of blogs, and in particular, WordPress Blogs, as today’s digital business card for your growing enterprise.

Coming next: “Knowledge, Research & Curiosity: Learn about your competitors”. Date for next post will be March 10, 2010

*Reno SEO Expert. A paid professional who can provide measurable results and demonstrate ROI for promised SEO services and also be able to share success stories for past clients they have worked with.

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