Milwaukee Search Engine Optimization

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! And make sure you get the free e books no opt in required.

The top mistake I see new small businesses do in relation to their online presence is to not take SEO into consideration from the beginning. Search Engine Optimization of your brand new web site is going to be the key criteria to success. Having a great banner, super flash presentation, neat pictures, and all the fun stuff, will not do a darn thing without proper optimization. The philosophy of "build it and they will come" doesn’t work on the vast Internet highway. If you are just now getting into the Internet for your local business, please read this article several times and welcome to the 21st century.

Ask your web designer to consider SEO and they will say sure I’ll add keywords to your meta tags for you. I’ll also submit your site to the search engines. They will usually put something that has 33,000,000 other web sites trying to rank for it. This, of course, is utterly worthless for your Google campaign and meta tags aren’t even powerful anymore. So now you have a cool site but no one knows it exists.

So the question is "How do I avoid making this mistake?" If you are just now considering a web presence it is relatively easy. Talk to a search engine optimization expert first to determine how to dominate your niche. By paying a little more attention up front you will drive tons more visitors down the road. The SEO expert will help you gather keywords that work, set up proper writing for SEO, pick a good domain name, and other important  measures to insure good rankings and more importantly good sales. Traffic and conversions are the to things you need the SEO expert for.

Odds are you are reading this and already have made the mistake of not optimizing your web site first. Can something be done to help your optimization efforts? Yes, but it doesn’t necessarily involve on page optimization (web site changes). Since your site already has made a name for itself you aren’t going to want to make drastic changes like change the domain name, change your branding, and change the advertising theme. This is when off page optimization is key to driving more qualified traffic. For instance start a blog and make it SEO friendly and drive customers to your web site. Submit articles showing your expertise and drive those people to your web site. Set up feeder sites (blogger, wordpress, weebly, wetpaint) that will be search engine friendly and can drive people to your main site. The scope of this topic is way to large to cover here but more information is at my blog on how to do this.

When deciding what kind of customers to target make sure you learn about search engine optimization first. The key to having a Google friendly site is to set it up correctly the first time. If its to late for that look up using web 2.0 to optimize your site effectively.

No Comments

Search Engine Optimization can look like a daunting task at times. When you get piles and piles of information by doing a search online it seems like you could start and never finish. Then you talk to one of us SEO geeks and it really seems overwhelming. I was reminded of this fact when  a friend asked for my help in getting their web site ranking. I must have spewed out 50 steps to take in a matter of minutes and completely confused her. Well, in reality SEO is a never ending task, but it doesn’t have to be done in a day. The key is to break it down into easy identifiable tasks so that you can conquer the search engines.

The first step is keyword research. It is not the most exciting part of SEO but it really is the foundation everything is laid on. If you optimize your site for the wrong keywords you might as well not have a site because it won’t be found. The obvious first step is to write down everything you are trying to sell and want to rank for. I will then take those keywords and do a lot of research on them. Search for high ranking keywords with minimal competition. WordTracker is a way to get this information and also breaks the results down for you. Remember when doing searches you also want to be doing local keywords because that’s were your buyers are.

I like to look at my competitors keywords next to get an idea what some of the terms they use are. Simply go to their site and then go to the view tab of your browser and go down to view source. Look for something along the lines of meta name= keywords. Who is linking to your competition and where are they ranked. Your competition really is going to determine how much SEO you will have to do. Remember your goal is to outrank your competition so use what they do to  your advantage.

The next step is web design and development. Hopefully you are in the process of creating your web site. It is harder to fix something that is broke then building it correctly from the start. Make sure your site is built search engine friendly design and architecture. This will help you vault above your competitors and also save money in the long run.

Getting your fist inbound link is what you now should be focused on. Don’t fall for those search engine submission for 100 dollar deals. You want the search engines to find your site naturally. How is that you ask? Someone who is in their index that links to you. I recommend using social book marking as an easy way to get Google indexing your site. You can also use a local web directory like local.com or merchant circle will get you indexed fast.

Finally the last step I would recommend is a site map for your site. If you have the bots checking out your site you want them to find every page. A site map will help them locate your pages. As a side benefit many of the major search engines also will provide reports and statistics when you provide this.

Enough work for a little while. Sometimes going back and reviewing the basics can help in your rankings. I realize now that I can overlook some of the most important steps when telling people what to do because they are not cool and sexy. Funny though these are the steps that seem to really set you apart from the rest.

No Comments

If you read my blog or any of the pages I have put up you already know I advocate going local in your web presence. A person who does a local search for a product, store, or service is much closer to making a buying decision that someone who is using generic searching terms. These local buyers is what web owners should be searching for because they are much more profitable than building awareness.

Lets say that Jackie works at a law firm in Milwaukee, WI and she needs special paper to print out an important booklet for a presentation they are doing. Jackie needs to buy this paper today so they can start printing it. She is not sure where to go for this paper. She goes on the Internet and types Milwaukee paper stores. She finds two local companies visits their web sites and decides where to go. That is the targeted buyer you want when you are trying to optimize your web site.

The following sites I am listing are local advertising type sites. You can sign up and have your local information listed on their site. These sites have high page rank and generally you can get a high local listing. I recommend if you do nothing else at least get your local store listed on these sites for traffic purposes. These sites will provide you with inbound links which can only help your ranking.

Yahoo Local Listing

Goog 411

superpages

local.com

yelp.com

judys book

google maps

These are just a few of the sites that are used as local directories or local coupons. There are many more out there for you to partake in. I would highly recommend looking up local directories and making sure you are listed. They are free and if they bring in one local paying customer it is all extra profit for you.

No Comments

Simply put, local search engine optimization is telling the search engines to index your web site by your geographical location. By doing this step you are allowing the search engines to communicate your location to potential customers. Even though this seems rather simple it is still one of the most overlooked factors in search engine optimization. I feel the reason for this is that web owners have the thought they need to provide service or sell to the entire Internet. This is simply untrue especially if you have a local market.

If your business is location based like Milwaukee, WI web searchers and search engines need to know this. You must always mention your location on everything you do on the web. It is even more important if you are in a very competitive field. By local targeting you can take on national or state level businesses with success and smaller pockets. These larger corporations don’t have time to break it down into localized advertising.

What seems to happen on many cases is a business owner and webmaster set up their web page based on huge national keywords and don’t get anywhere near the top. They give up after a little while and then say the Internet is not where we want to spend our time. Some others then decide that paid search is the way to compete then spend thousands of dollars on pay per click. This unfortunately is even harder to master and now the business owner is out thousands of dollars hasn’t sold anything.  By contrast a business owner who targets locally easily obtains page one, drives traffic to the web site, and has sold some of their services to local buyers.

Let me give you an example of a business doing local search engine optimization. You sell used cars at a small lot in Franklin, WI. You target "used cars" for your web site and you are on about page 112 or so. The person who looks up general "used cars" is probably looking more for information on the best type of cars and the ratings of those used cars. Once they have this information they will look locally for one of those cars. Almost all customers who are going to buy a local car would type in Milwaukee used car or Franklin used car. These are real buyers looking for a dealership to go to. Real buyers are what you should be targeting not general information seekers.

This is a very small change you can make to your web site for it to produce income for your small business. The obvious benefit to geo targeting your site and keywords is a top ranking is possible in the organic searches. This results in increased visibility for your small business and highly targeted traffic that is going to buy. By narrowing you parameters you are better defining your type of customer and will get better return on your money spent. What is I can take 3 or 4 of the top spots? Stay tuned!

No Comments

A good Milwaukee SEO consultant can be identified by the following factors:

1) Is willing to share their knowledge.

A good search optimization consultant willingly tells you of the strategies they use to help your web site rank highly in the search engines. When the consultant won’t discuss their techniques one could assume they are black hat or negative tactics. These unsafe techniques or commonly called black hat seo can result in lower rankings and even being ignored by the search engines altogether. When you have been de-listed by Google or the other search engines you may have to start all over including a new domain name. If you have an excellent domain name this can be very costly. Avoid anyone using these bad techniques.

2) Will be able to use cutting edge techniques.

If your consultant doesn’t keep up to date you can be sure your site will fall behind. Always check to see what they do for training and finding out the latest techniques. They should be able to explain what’s happening now and how they are integrating it into your rankings. They should also tell you how they are keeping up to date like research, seminars, books etc.

3) Does not guarantee a number one listing.

No one can guarantee top position because it is an art not science formula to get to the top. Not to mention the search engines change the way they do their rankings a lot so what may work today may not tomorrow. A good SEO consultant will be able to get your site to rank higher. You should be able to check other web sites that he/she already did. A good SEO consultant is able to get most web sites top 10 positions for the main keywords. He/she will also help you identify the right keywords.

4) The goal and purpose of SEO is to get a successful web site.

The primary goal of seo is to make your site a success not just a top ranking. You spend money on the SEO works so you want to get something back for it. The higher rankings in the search engines are just part of that. Your consultant will realize sales have to be made and you can’t have web copy that only works for rankings. Just being in the top 10 of the search engine rank pages does not guarantee more sales. The copy needs to be written for the visitors so that they will be more willing to spend their hard earned money. Nothing is worse than doing an organic search and coming to a web site ranked high that has nothing of value, don’t do this!

5) Gives you a basic evaluation of your web site for free.

This doesn’t mean a redesign or anything like that. The consultant will look at your keywords, rankings, and general optimization to give you an idea of ways to improve. Even if you don’t go with the consultant it should be in there nature to help with a problem or two so they can show good will.

6) Does not have too many clients.

I realize this is a weird one but if the seo consultant restricts how many clients they have they can better optimize your site. If they only really care about money they will have numerous clients and will keep adding them even if they are doing a disservice.

If you follow these simple steps you should have a partner who will work hard for your success. Remember that finding the right seo consultant can make you profitable and happy for many years to come.

No Comments