Local Internet Marketing SEO Made Simple

What is local search engine optimization?

Simply put, search engine optimization, also known as SEO by those who practice it, is the steps taken to have your web site show up in the results returned by Google, Yahoo, and Bing whenever people search for something online.

So, for example, if you own an Italian restaurant in Phoenix and you want your web site to show up when searchers type in “italian restaurants in phoenix”, there are steps you must take in order for that to happen.

This is where a lot of small business owners fall short when hiring a web site designer. If your web site designer does not understand SEO (most don’t) your web site will not show up for the keywords people are typing in no matter how many times your web designer submits your site to Google.

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15 years ago in 1995, when I first started practicing SEO, the term did not exist. In fact, we were using search engines called Infoseek, Excite, Lycos.

Google did not even exist yet! SEO was simple back then but because there were so many search engines with so many different requirements it was impossible to optimize a web page for all of them.

It is much easier now because there is really only one 800 lb gorilla… Google. We really only have to optimize for one search engine today. The difficulty lies in the increased competition today for the top keywords.

The Dark Hidden Secrets of SEO!

First of all, despite what some so called expert tells you SEO is not full of “dark secrets” or “secret hidden knowledge” that only a few people have access to. SEO, like anything else is a skill that must be learned.

First and foremost, you must beware of so called SEO people that guarantee you top listings in Google. Sorry folks, unless the SEO person is targeting obsolete keyword phrases with no competition it is impossible to guarantee anything. If they offer a guarantee ask them what keywords they are guaranteeing.

This does not mean you can’t get top listings in the search engines for the keyword phrases you need to reach buyers. It is just unprofessional and misleading to lure business owners in by making guarantees.

The Two Most Important Elements To Getting Top Rankings in Google

The two areas you must focus on are what we call On Page optimization and Off Page optimization. The two work together and neither one can be ignored if you expect to see your web pages rise in the search engines.

What Keyword Phrases Are Your Customers Typing In?

The very first thing you must do before beginning the process is know what keyword phrases people looking for your product or service are typing in to the search engine. You cannot design your web pages until you know what you are targeting.

Remember, Google does not rank web sites, it ranks web pages, and every page in your web site should be designed for different keyword phrases. This allows you to maximize your exposure in the search results.

A good SEO will do a search and determine what your primary keywords should be and what your secondary keywords should be. Your Home page will target your primary keywords and your other pages the secondary ones.

On Page Optimization is the process of designing your pages so that Google sees the keywords as the main theme of the web page. Your title tags, link structure, and body text all play a major role in On Page optimization.

Off Page optimization is often mis understood by most amateur SEO people and is extremely important to getting you to the top of Google. I am going to explain it here in its simplest form.

You must get lots of links from other web sites to your web page whose link text contains the keywords you want to rank for.

For example, if you want to rank number one for the keywords “italian restaurants in phoenix” you need lots and lots of links to your site that contain “italian restaurants in phoenix” in the link text.

What I mean by link text is the underlined blue text in the link. Instead of linking to http://www.localgoldmine.com, I want the link text to say my keywords Local Internet Marketing. They both take you to the same page but Google sees my keywords and gives it more juice.

Google sees links from other web sites to your site as a “vote” for your site to rank for the keywords in your link text. Get lots of votes from lots of sites for your keywords and Google determines that your site must valuable and should appear in their results for those keywords.

Now, you must understand that there is a little more to SEO, but those are the only 2 areas you must focus on to gain top listings in Google.

A poor On Page optimization will still get great listings if you have tons of links coming in. But even a great On Page optimized web page has little chance of ranking well without lots of back links.

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