Having a website is NOT the same thing as Internet Marketing. Most of the businesses on Merchant Circle understand the fundamental value of internet marketing but few have gone to the trouble of really optimizing their positions in the search engines. Mostly, because its still a mystery to most business owners. How many times do you scratch your head and say "Why in the heck is that guy number one?!" It's frustrating, confusing and quite obviously if there was any justice in the world, your site would be ahead of his. But it isn't. Here's how to fix that. As an Internet consultant, I can tell you from having looked at literally thousands of locally oriented businesses that there was very little effort needed to gain the positions that those in the search results seem to enjoy. That's actually good news. For the most part, most businesses that are in the top 10 of search results have been around for a while, have had a website for a while and may even have some of the search terms people use in their domain. Beyond that no effort was needed to be top dog on Google searches. (I focus on Google because that represents 70% of local searches.) Focusing on Google, there are three places in the search results that you should be showing up. The first and the most important is the Google Maps Local Listings. If Google finds your website with an associated address and phone number, you may find that your business is listed in Google Maps. Most business don't realize that they can edit AND OPTIMIZE this maps listing for free! In my humble opinion, this is the MOST IMPORTANT place to be in Google Listings for businesses who want local referrals. How to optimize maps listing placement is fodder for another article but the first step is to take control of your business listing in Google Maps. If you business is in the listings, you can claim it and after a simple verification process, you can then start to edit your listing. Include as much detail as you can. This might be the first exposure a potential prospect has to your business. The more traditional search results occur in Googles paid search listings and the natural (organic listings). Either educate yourself on Google's Adwords Pay-Per-Click program or hire a professional. I recommend the latter but it doesn't hurt to get your feet wet so you can understand what is going on. Adwords lets you bid on any search term that you want to appear in the search results for. If someone then types that search term, your ad will pop up in the listings and only if someone clicks on your ad will you owe Google any money. Typical click costs for most business range from $.50 to 5.00. You might think that's a lot of money for a click but given that this is a client in your target market looking specifically for your products and services, you might want to reconsider. The costs of the clicks is typically very market driven and in the worst case, you might break even assuming you judiciously chose your search terms. The point is, that with pay-per-click, you can show up in any of the search results that you think appropriate. Organic listings are the golden eggs of Google. I would argue that in the case where the search pulls up the local listings, the organic listings are actually a close second. Still, being first in the organic listings is a very coveted position. Of all the clicks on the results pages, the first organic listing gets more than half! While we are not here to provide a course in SEO, I can tell you that the first organic position for most local business is NOT HARD TO GET. That's because most businesses don't understand how "that guy" got to the top. I recommend to most of my business clients, pick three of the most popular search terms for your business and add the local geographic to it. For example: plumber dayton. Most people might actually type "plumber" on their first search until they realize that none of the listings are local and they need a "plumber in dayton". If you optimize your site for terms like this and engage in a basic link building exercises, your site will rank very quickly. I am so comfortable with this process now that I don't even charge my clients until they show up on the first page for the three terms we choose. In most cases, we can make it happen in a matter of days! I took my own site from 221 to number 1 in three days for the search term Search Engine Optimization Dayton. You would expect that to be pretty competitive wouldn't you but alas, people in my industry rarely follow their own advice! That's marketing. The whole point is to tell you that the first result in Google is a valuable as the first placement in the Yellow Pages used to be. And for those of you who used to pay Yellow Pages $1000's, it's time to let go. I can look you up on my cell phone and you know who delivers those results? Google! ____ Written by Greg Newell SEO Cincinnati, Dayton, Columbus
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