Search Engine Optimization Archives - Cathy Stucker

3 Steps to Claim and Optimize Google Places for Business Page

March 28, 2014 by Samuel Ott Leave a Comment

Since the implementation of Google+, Google has made drastic changes to the way businesses set up their Google Places page (now known as Google Places for Business), while adding a social aspect for businesses to participate in by creating a Google+ Local page (Google’s equivalent to a Facebook business page).

If a search phrase is recognized as a local search by Google then the search engine will display business pages that provide that service or product in the searcher’s local area. Google is getting much better at recognizing what’s a local search even without stating the city in the search phrase. Google picks up on your location and attempts to best serve the searcher’s intent. For instance, if you’re located in St. Louis and search “Plumber,” that is a good enough indication for Google provide the searcher with local results in the St. Louis area.

So, how do businesses go about creating and optimizing their Google Places Business page? Well, the following is a 5 step plan to create and optimize your GP Business page. [Read more…]

A Simple SEO Checklist

January 21, 2013 by Cathy Stucker Leave a Comment

Free search engine traffic is an amazing thing. It can grow your business by bringing you new subscribers and customers. But the thing is, you have to work at it. And it seems as though the search engines are always changing the “rules” about how they rank sites.

Even so, there are some things you can do that will usually help your search rankings as well as increasing customer engagement and often bringing traffic from sources other than the search engines. If you want to improve your search engine rankings, keep this checklist handy to steadily grow your traffic.
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Use Google Analytics to Grow Your Business

July 16, 2012 by Cathy Stucker 2 Comments

Do you know who visits your website and how they find you? If you aren’t monitoring your website traffic, you are missing out on information you need to grow your business. There are tools and reports available, many of them free, which provide valuable insight as to who is visiting your website and why. Your webhosting company may have reports available, but I like to use Google Analytics.
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5 Step Google Places Page Optimization

January 26, 2011 by Cathy Stucker Leave a Comment

NOTE: An updated version of this post is available: 3 Steps to Claim and Optimize Google Places for Business Page

This post is from Lauren Bradley of Boston SEO Services.

If you haven’t noticed, Google drastically changed its local search results late in 2010. Prior to the change, when a user would type in “Plumber St. Louis” the results would show 7 listings at the top next to a map.

After the change, the local search results take up the entire first page (for most searches) pushing organic listings way far down.

This change is powerful for small business owners. If you simply type in “shoes” to Google, it will most likely return shoe stores closest to your current location.

Google has made it pretty simple for small business owners to set up and optimize their Google Places pages. These are the pages that help to determine local search rankings. Many local business owners do not want to mess around with setting up and optimizing their Google Places page because 1. they don’t know where to start or 2. don’t have time to set it up.

I have simplified the process as much as possible for these reasons. If you do anything to help build your online presence, complete the following five steps.

Step One: Verify and Claim your Google Places page
Verifying your Places page as the owner of the business is important if you are at all concerned about controlling information about your company that is on the internet. As a verified owner, you can edit and add information to your Places page as you wish.

Verifying it is simple, after finding your Google Places page, there is a link in the top right corner that will either say “Owner verified” or “Business owner?” After clicking on that, you will be walked through the process of claiming your Places page.

Step Two: Consistent NAP
Maintaining a consistent NAP (Name, Address and Phone number) on your Google Places page and across the internet plays a strong role in rankings. Everything on your Places page from the name of your company to the suite of your office needs to be consistent with your website. Saying Suite 210 on one place and then #210 on another is inconsistent. This seems minor, but does play a role.

Step Three: Keyword Optimized Categories
This seems intuitive, however the number of business owners who list their categories incorrectly is a little shocking. If you have already done some keyword research for your company, this is where those words come into play. If you haven’t, you should have a decent understanding of your products, services and how your prospects might be searching for you.

Use those keywords when filling out your categories. As you type in words, Google will make phrase suggestions for you to choose from. I would recommend picking at least two Google suggested phrases of your five categories. It is important to also fill out all 5 categories.

Step Four: Natural & Complete Description
Completing your description is something you should put a few minutes of thought into. If you sell pastries, put a little more thought into your description than just, “Your neighbor pastry shop.”

What’s unique about you? Do you do something different than others?

Google gives you this opportunity to talk yourself up to your prospects. So do it. Don’t stuff it with keywords. This about writing to impress the reader and not the search engine.

Step 5: Collecting Honest & Legitimate Reviews
Word of mouth advertising is the most profitable, powerful and persuasive marketing tactic. Google has set up a review system that allows your current clients to talk about you and your services. Not only does this give your prospects more information about your offerings and personality but Google also uses this as a “voting” system when determining rankings.

Keep in mind that you are not wanting to scam the system or seem at all spammy. It is important to collect legitimate and honest reviews from your clients.

Get Links to Your Website

November 15, 2010 by Cathy Stucker Leave a Comment

An important element in getting your site ranked well with the search engines is to fill it with quality content. How do the search engines judge what is quality content?

They have a number of proprietary algorithms, and they tend to be secretive about many aspects of how they evaluate sites and determine rankings. However, one thing we know is that having a lot of good links coming in to your site is one factor that can help you to rank well.

You might think of links as “votes” for your site. That’s a simplistic way to look at it, but it is not a bad analogy. When someone likes your site, they link to it. When a lot of sites link to your site, that means a lot of people like it.

The search engines like links to occur because people want to link to your site. They are opposed to things such as “link farms” (massive link exchanges) or paid links that try to game the system. The best links are those that occur naturally. However, it is possible to do things that ethically encourage incoming links.

Some links are more valuable than others. A link from an authority site to yours is worth more than a nofollow link you got by placing a blog comment. Just about any link will have at least some value, though, and you should always be on the lookout for ways to get more links.

Also remember that links have value beyond the search engines. Links may be followed by humans looking for more information about your topic. Posting an article, blog comment or other useful information, along with a link to your site, can lead them directly to you.

When talking about leads, we advise to consider following six ways to generate incoming links to your site:

Publish quality content. Bloggers and other website owners like to link to relevant content. If you write and publish tons of quality content, you’ll receive tons of incoming links.

Write articles for other sites. Writing articles and publishing them on other sites, especially respected sites in your niche, is a great method for getting inbound links.

Guest post on other people’s blogs. Bloggers are always looking for fresh content, and many are open to using guest posts. Approach bloggers in your niche and offer to write guest posts. They get the content, you get links to your site. Subscribe to http://BloggerLinkUp.com to find guest posting opportunities.

Write press releases and submit them to online press release websites. Be sure to include your website link at the end of the press release so media representatives can contact you, but also so you have an incoming link and interested visitors can find your website.

Get reciprocal links. Some reciprocal links are good as long as they’re coming from relevant websites. The trick is to balance reciprocal links with one-way links. Mix up your linking tactics so it looks natural to Google.

Participate in social networking. Posting tweets, and Facebook posts create incoming links to your website. In addition, when you comment on forums and other blog posts you also create incoming links via your signature.

As you’re creating and implementing your search engine optimization strategies, take the time to consider and include these linking tactics. While you may not be able to complete them all at the same time, instead focus on one tactic at a time adding to your SEO strategy as you grow.