Local SEO

What is SEO?

Any why should your business care?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the process of building, maintaining, and improving a website so that search engines such as Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others recognize it as an authority for certain keywords (topics) users are searching for. These keywords can be one word, word phrases, or even questions.

SEO is as much an art as a science since no one really knows what makes a website rank in search engines. The layers of indicators a search engine such as Google uses to rank a website seem to change daily, so what worked today may not work tomorrow and WILL NOT work a couple of years from now. That much we all know.

What else we know is that, to have your website rank on at least the first page of, let's say, Google, you need much more than a pretty site. A pretty website is analogous to a fancy car. If you don't put gas in it and get it out to drive, it's not really worth what you paid for it. Yes, it's a great conversation piece, but it doesn't get noticed outside your close group and will not make you money. In fact, it will wind up costing you money, as it will require repairs on an idle car and prevent you from capturing customer leads on your website.

So, what does all this mean to you, the business owner?

Do you need to learn one more HUGE thing to help your business?

Or forget about ranking and just use paid advertising?

Or, rely on HOPE to get you through this digital world?

Or worse, much worse actually... rely only on social media for your outreach and think you will be seen by everyone who follows you.

Not to rain on your parade, but each of those is influenced by the law of diminishing returns.

You can spend the next year or two trying to get a handle on this SEO thing while you run your business.

You can use paid advertising. It works very well when done systematically, and you have money to spend on ads and landing page creation (because just sending your leads to your homepage IS a waste of money).

Rely on HOPE? You're a business owner. You know better.

Rely on social media... I've made a blog post about that bad idea. Go check it out.

A screen-shot of my own local website statistics:

There are many but I'll break it down in bullet point form:

• No need to spend money on digital advertising.
• Work completed will be effective for at least a few months to a few years
• Helps the user experience, which makes your website stronger
• Beat your competition for less money in most cases
• Time spent will pay off, unlike social media, where it's just relying on their platform
• Be seen in local search and possibly national and international searches
• Build a stronger Google My Business, which is known to help ranking in Google Maps
• Bring in customers actually looking for your products and services because they searched for them

That last bullet point is the key to all of SEO!

You want customers who are looking for what you are selling. Their intent is certain, and they are interested. They have been shown to be a qualified lead, and they may buy from you if the price and conditions are right.

Think about it this way... If I have a cat and I am online looking for cat food, and your website comes up, I'll probably click on it and check you out. If I'm looking for cat food and all you have to sell is dog food, I'm not going to click.

My intent is to buy cat food; you sell cat food; let's get together and make a sale.