Google Snippets: How Google Chooses Your Search Result Snippet

Have you ever wondered how Google determines what to show as the snippet of text between the title and URL for a listing in the organic search engine results pages (SERPs)?  Most people think there is no method to Google’s madness for picking snippets.  However, if you spend a little time doing searches, looking at the SERPs, and then evaluating the HTML of those URLs being presented, you can quickly see that there is a pattern.

Google snippets

Three sources of Google snippets

It is important to understand “how” Google picks the snippet that they display in the SERPs so that you can use it to your advantage.  With the exception of the last source mentioned below, Google’s seems to pick the source of the snippet based on their desire to highlight ALL of the keywords from the search phrase in the snippet.

Site Performance: New Labs Feature in Google’s Webmaster Tools

Google has added a useful new feature to the Labs section of its Webmaster Tools (WMT) called Site Performance.  If you haven’t already done so then I would suggest that you signup for a Google Webmaster Tools account and go through the Google site verification process for your web site(s).

Once you have an account, log into WMT. Once you click on your site on the WMT home page and go to that site’s dashboard, expand the +Labs in the left navigation to reveal all of the Labs utilities.  You should see the new Site Performance feature listed as an option.  Click on Site Performance in the left navigation and the new Site Performance page will appear as follows:

Site performance in Labs left navigation of Google WMT

.EDU and .GOV Links: SEO Gold Mines?

Since the early days of the World Wide Web, webmasters and search engine optimization (SEO) consultants building links have sought after .edu and .gov links from education and government web sites. Inbound links from .edu and .gov domains have been seen over the years by many as the holy grail of link building. But are these links still worth the effort?

Google Instant and SEO: The Sky Is Falling!

I have spent the last few days since the September 8, 2010, debut of Google Instant making the rounds visiting all of the usual search engine optimization (SEO) blogs and forums.  I am truly amazed at all of the “Chicken Little's” out there proclaiming the end to SEO as a result of Google’s latest innovation.  But I  just don’t see it happening, not as a result of Google Instant, not as long as search engines display organic results. 

Google Instant and SEO 

The Predecessor to Google Instant:  Google Suggest

Remember Google Suggest?  Yeah… It is that drop down list of “suggested” search phrases that you have been seeing at Google since August of 2008, as you type in your search phrase. 

Do you remember when it was first implemented?  I remember seeing the same posts about how it was going to put an end to SEO, how it was going to kill the long tail, how it was going to mean the end to small businesses, how only big business would now be able to compete in PPC, etc. 

What To Do When Your Site Drops?

It's happened to all of us. You wake up one morning feeling like a million bucks, you stretch and if you're like me, you notice the eye-rolling as once again your significant other catches you with a toothbrush dangling from your mouth and a laptop or iPhone in front of you while you check rankings and emails. And then it happens - you start your browser with a search phrase already set to display and you notice that your site no longer holds it's previous position and the move is not in the right direction. We've all faced it and the longer you've been an SEO or website owner the more times you've seen it happen. But still ... what do you do? To quote the immortal Douglas Adams, "Don't panic."

Google+ and the Potential Impact on SEO

Although you can only join by invitation at this point, you've no doubt heard of Google+, Google's latest attempt to join (or, in time perhaps, completely overtake?) Facebook and Twitter as a must have social networking tool. In the months before Google+ was launched, Google also began implementing the "+1" button as a usable option for users to signify that they enjoy a particular site or page in an attempt to gather as much raw data as possible about the popularity and social value of sites and content before Google+ was rolled out for the masses. Preceding the Google+ and +1 button was the introduction of real time search, which was able to incorporate search results from Twitter, blogs and Facebook. Google, it would appear, is realizing the immense value of social media and the impact of social media on web search.

Google+ and the Potential Impact on SEO

Learn SEO in 15 Minutes

Keywords in <title> tag 

This is one of the most important places to have a keyword because what is written inside the <title> tag shows in search results as your page title. The title tag must be short (6 or 7 words at most) and the the keyword must be near the beginning. 

Keywords in URL

Keywords in URLs help a lot - e.g. - http://domainname.com/seo-services.html, where “SEO services” is the keyword phrase you attempt to rank well for. But if you don't have the keywords in other parts of the document, don't rely on having them in the URL.

Keyword density in document text

Another very important factor you need to check. 3-7 % for major keywords is best, 1-2 for minor. Keyword density of over 10% is suspicious and looks more like keyword stuffing, than a naturally written text.

Keywords in anchor text

Also very important, especially for the anchor text of inbound links, because if you have the keyword in the anchor text in a link from another site, this is regarded as getting a vote from this site not only about your site in general, but about the keyword in particular. 

How To Sniff Out An SEO Rat: Protecting Your Brand and Your Wallet

With all the discussion of individuals ratting out websites and or certain SEO companies you probably think this post is about just that. Don't worry, you can breathe a sigh of relief, I wouldn't waste yours nor my time with such a post. However, I absolutely will take this time to help you sniff out SEO rats that are looking to take advantage of small businesses by promising top search engine rankings. A realistic promise is a great point to start off with...

Google PageRank: Still Relevant After All These Years

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin invented the PageRank algorithm way back in the late 90s, they struck gold and were smart enough to found Google to capitalize on its very real potential to change search. For many years Google even told us the PageRank number for each web page on the Internet via the Google Toolbar and later in Webmaster Tools. We grew to love PageRank and, as a profession, we SEOs started placing too much importance on it as a ranking factor. In recent years, the pendulum has swung in the opposite direction with people like my friend Mike Volpe declaring that "Google PageRank is now irrelevant". And Mike is in good company. In this post, I take the contrary point of view and argue that, in fact, Google PageRank is still relevant after all these years.

Toolbar PageRank vs. Real PageRank

First let's distinguish between the number Google gives us in the Google toolbar and the real PageRank Google uses in its complex algorithm. Toolbar PR is notoriously out of date being only updated a couple times a year according to Google. That makes it only marginally useful at best. Let's also admit here that we don't know the real PageRank in anything like real time, (though we can approximate it with similar algorithms like the SEOMoz mozRank – more on that later). So what is left to argue about? Well let's look at some pesky facts.

An Inconvenient Truth

Facts are hard to come by in the SEO business, but every once in a while we are fortunate enough to stumble across some. In a recent SEOMoz study of factors that are correlated with ranking well in Google, the fact is that Domain mozRank is closely correlated with ranking well (see slide 22). Now as Rand Fishkin points out, correlation does not prove causality. Nonetheless, if PageRank is no longer relevant then why would there be such a strong correlation with mozRank? I would humbly submit that Google never scrapped the PageRank algorithm. In fact, Google states that clearly in their Technology Overview: "Today we use more than 200 signals, including PageRank, to order websites". They very likely modified it to incorporate the concept of TrustRank, but why would they throw the PageRank part out when it is based on sound concepts? If they did then why is Google still concerned with those that "game the system" by paying for links from not-so-trustworthy sites? Seems to me that PageRank must be alive and well deep inside the Google algorithm.

PageRank is an Algorithm not a Metric

Some people confuse the PageRank algorithm for a metric. Since it can't really be measured with any confidence, it can't serve as a metric. Enter SEOMoz with their similar algorithm mozRank which is updated frequently enough to be useful as a metric. You can read all about mozRank on the SEOMoz site.

Understanding how PageRank the algorithm works can still be useful to us. In a related post, I run through some calculations using the original PageRank formula to show how PageRank flows within different website linking topologies. While the examples might be simple the same method of calculation can be applied to larger topologies and inform decisions about website link structure.

PageRank Doesn't Apply to Social Media

Given the rapid rise of social media and its influence on our thinking, Google had to find a way to incorporate these social signals into its algorithm. Now we know that Google looks at social signals like the number of retweets, author authority, author quality, etc (as does Bing). We don't know how Google is integrating these signals into the main Google algorithm but in the same SEOMoz report mentioned above its clear that social signals do influence regular web page rankings. So the fact that Google is now using social signals to rank plain old web pages doesn't mean that they aren't using PageRank as well.

It's also clear that social media pages/tweets are now showing up in the SERPs for certain types of queries – but certainly not all types of queries and I would argue not for the vast majority of queries. Thus, the premise that Google doesn't use PageRank for social media pages/tweets, while it might be true, is still not that important when you look at the small number of queries that actually have them in the SERPs.

PageRank Lets the Cream Rise to the Top

PageRank helps us find more relevant results using the idea that there is an implied endorsement when someone goes to the trouble of linking to another page. Since PageRank is a logarithmic scale, it separates the upper echelon of websites from the rest. In a world where thousands of new websites are churned out every day, PageRank still has the ability to let the cream rise to the top. The higher you're PageRank, the more difficult it is to improve it. Also, it grows with the evolving nature of the web. As the internet grows, PageRank adapts at scale. It's a brilliant formula really.

What To Do With PageRank

If PageRank is still relevant, what should we do about it? Well, here I agree with Mike Volpe that we still need to focus on building compelling optimized content that will attract links and rank well so it can then attract visitors to our websites who will convert to leads and eventually become customers. That is, after all, why we SEOs do what we do. Understanding the nature of PageRank and how it flows in a website linking structure can help us optimize information architectures. Using metrics like mozRank can also help us identify attractive linking partners and thereby prioritize our link-building efforts that in turn promote our great content.

Further Research:

Matt Cutts post on sculpting PageRank with nice intro about how PageRank flows
Rand Fishkin's Whiteboard Friday post about how to think of “link juice”
Google Webmaster Central video with Matt Cutts describing how PageRank flows from Facebook and Twitter
Correlation between mozRank and PageRank post by Nick Gerner

SEO Salesman vs SEO Geek: SEO Selling Success Observations

Okay, first of all... I'm not a salesman in any way shape or form. I know absolutely zero about it, I haven't read books or been to seminars and I don't know anything about traditional sales tactics. This is purely on feedback I've been given from clients as to why they signed up with us. It might not be the same for everyone, I just thought I'd share my experiences and see if anyone else finds it to be the same for them.

Despite my profile picture I never really wear a suit and I'm rarely clean shaven. When I first started going out to see clients I was far more nervous about it all than I am now, but being the chatty one of our little agency it was left to me to be the "salesman". At the will of the others I went along in a suit, with a bunch of paperwork such as contracts and a standing order form with the hope of getting people signed up straight away (I was advised by somebody who works in sales that this was a way around our previous problem of customers saying they'd like to go ahead, and then never getting around to actually signing up with us).

Needless to say I had little success. After a while I started reverting back to my scruffy self, even at appointments with clients. I tend to have that "Just fell out of bed look!"

I noticed that I felt more comfortable in myself with this and felt it somehow affected my ability to talk to the clients. After all, I was an SEO not a salesman... looking back I realise that I felt uncomfortable trying to be somebody I'm not (wearing a suit and trying to push things on to people).

I was chastised for this a little and was forbidden to go to a particular meeting with a large national company who were a potential client. I went with my gut feel and turned up looking like myself anyway. As far as I was concerned, it should be about what I say, not how I look that determined the outcome.

We got the job. As the curious chap I am (and smug about being right as usual), I wanted to find out if the suit would have made any difference, so I asked. I didn't ask just that client, I asked anyone and everyone we had success with. I got in to a friendly chat with them to procure the information in order to figure out what sold it.

My findings were as follows.

A suit would have put them off. The clients are used to smartly dressed salesmen turning up and trying to get them to sign their lives away, and if I had of turned up in a suit it would have instantly put them on the back foot (or in defense mode against a hard sell strategy). So people are right about first impressions, just not necessarily in the way they think.

The general feedback I got was that they were more impressed by the fact that I clearly was not a salesman, I was a techie geek. I was obviously passionate about what I do and instead of trying to sell to them I excitedly explained what we did and what it could do. This is where the suit comes in. techie geeks don't wear suits, salesmen do. Techie geeks are scruffy and don't use pressure sales, they just get excited about their techie geek stuff whenever they get a chance to talk about it. This gave the clients confidence that I was good at my job, and they trusted me because it wasn't a sales pitch from an sales expert... they didn't feel I was trying to manipulate their thoughts, overstate or over promise anything in order to get a sale.

Aside from this we ditched the contracts. We weren't comfortable trying to tie people in anyway. Why would we need to do that if we were doing our jobs properly, if we were getting the required results then they would be happy to stay with us anyway! This meant less risk for the client, as they could cancel at any time, and made it clear that we had confidence in our own abilities. Having said this, I do still understand why some companies do have contracts with clients. I think it very much depends on the circumstances, the clients involved, and a number of other factors. We're just in a situation where it's not so necessary for us.

Anyway, now when I must go to meet with a potential client I turn up scruffy looking and do the exact same thing, I don't sell SEO to them... I chat to them about SEO. I give them loads of free advice and I enjoy myself doing so. If I were to turn up in a suit to my next client meeting I would feel uncomfortable again, I would go into some alter ego salesman mode which isn't me, and I would fail miserably. No matter how big the client and how much is at stake, if they're going to choose us, they'll do it for the right reasons.

So, in my opinion (and please know I'm no expert, this is purely my own opinion based on my own experiences) if you're a techie geek and you have to meet a potential client, turn up as a techie geek. You don't need a suit, it's your knowledge, expertise and passion they want to see, not your dress sense.

The moral of the story is that despite the fact that I'm not a salesman, I now make quite a good SEO salesman (through not being like a salesman). If I tried to sell anything else I would be awful. But the clients I see at least, prefer to be sold to by geeks, which makes things all the better for me!

Finally I want to add this. A friend of mine who is awesome at his job (he designs yachts) went for an interview for a fairly low level position in a fairly small company about a year ago and was turned down on these very same grounds. Whilst he was smartly dressed, he did not wear a suit to his interview. Just after that interview he had what is arguably the world's most prestigious yacht design company come across his work and offer him a very high level position. Now, just one year later he is head of their design department and has achieved some amazing things for the company.

Maybe people should be employed on the merit of what they can do, instead of their ability to dress themselves in the morning. In some industries at least!

The 'Write' Way to Optimise Your Website

Hey true believers, this is my first SEOMoz article so be kind! The thrust of the article is to help people new to SEO concentrate on the important areas rather than getting bogged down with the all the advanced information out there.

This post was inspired by a quote from the profile of Rebecca the #1 user here on SEOMoz.org: "I like writing. A lot of the other stuff tends to get over-thought" - I think that pretty much sums it my thoughts here up nicely.

Getting started with SEO

SEOMoz is a great resource for search, possibly the best for pure, actionable information and research data for SEOs but for your average business owner or entrepreneur this granularity is not always needed (to begin with at least). If you were looking to appoint an SEO or just to learn more and stumbled across some correlation data it could terrify a newcomer. This is great for us in the industry who want data to justify our approaches but this type of thing can be really off putting for a newcomer.

SEO Starts with great content

I am a keen SEO and by that I mean my interest goes way beyond it just being a job. It's fair to say that after spending time with my family and buying games that I don't seem to find the time to play the search engines and internet marketing is probably the closest thing I have to an active hobby (yep, sad, I know, but I am not the only one here!).

Being such an SEO geek, I take in as many articles, blogs and participate in as many forums as time allows for - factor Twitter into that and I am often experimenting, reading some new study or research late into the evening (hence my wife's newly instated 'no smart phones in bed rule').

All this reading and time interacting on forums, blog comments and message boards along with the day-to-day work I do with UK businesses gives me an overview of what many people believe SEO is and the common mistakes made by business owners looking to optimise their web site for increased search traffic.

The point that I am slowly edging towards is that I often see an obsession with the technical and link building elements of SEO from new clients whilst the simple reality of building great sites with stellar content is seemingly overlooked. Additionally, many smaller companies come to SEO after they have just put together a new site and are now looking for rankings. So, criticism of the site (however constructive) or the content (or lack of) is often not easy to take and there can be a reluctance to go back to the drawing board.

Simply put, many prospective clients have done a bit of background SEO reading (usually the bad stuff), know that they need links and are looking for an 'easy' traffic solution.

It's just about the links and the tags init?

Well, I am sure that your mate down the pub is well-versed in the finer points of SEO and provides sage counsel to all of his chums - does not have a website of his own of course, and it's not what he does for living, but, knows his stuff he does - "it's all about the keyword tags mate". No, no it isn't and if you are seeking business and search engine advice from the local know-it-all then really, you should know better.

Problem is, there are lots of know-it-alls online and it's just too easy to pick up bad or out-of-date advice. Additionally, there are so many crappy SEO tools, affiliates and review sites for these tools that finding easy answers to SEO problems is all too simple. Additionally, SEO seems that seems to be offered by just about every Tom, Dick and Harry graphic design and website development outfit to generate some extra revenue.

To then be the person that has to come along and say 'I am sorry, but it's actually not that easy and you are going to have to work really hard at this' - well, I am sure most of you Mozzers have come up against this before.

The Darkside of SEO - quicker, easier, more seductive

Of course, it is tempting to think that you can just spend a few hundred pounds or dollars and you will have more traffic and business than you know what to do with. The people selling these tools and services often know exactly how to hook you in and damn, it sounds enticing to know you have discovered 'the number one SEO secret the pros don't want you to know' or one of the many 'too good to be true' claims you often see on sites promoting these tools.

Doing it right - AKA - Your competition sucks

This is where it gets interesting and there is some good news (hey, I am not all doom and gloom). Your competition, or most of them at least are not doing SEO properly, in fact, they are probably making a god awful mess of it. Why? Most people are suckered into looking for the easy way to get their site to the top of the results and are likely targeting some very general and tough to monetise search terms.

With your competition making such a hash of things, if you are practical, and put the work in, you can do so much better.

So, who is doing it right?

You don't have to take my word for this, there is a wealth of search results out there to back me up and hey, I am not trying to sell you a $99 SEO Tool that will get you tons of FREE Traffic!!!! after all!

Do a search for your business area along with your location and see what comes up and ill do the same -  there was a little wedding in London recently so let's take a quick look at 'wedding photography london'. There are plenty of sites returned, no problems there, but none of them are really offering much in the way of information beyond a list of their products, services and a few examples of their work.

What does Google want? What do your potential customers want?

Google is the sheriff around these parts and if you want to drink at the watering hole, then you better well do as they say. Fortunately, they make it pretty clear what they want and that is, in their own words: 'high quality content'. In February this year, this became ever more important when Google rolled out what has become known as the Panda update which has more than ever put the focus on high quality, informative, unique sites whilst burying low quality static and brochure type sites deeper down in the search engine result pages.

Google also wants sites to link to you, a link is vote and votes help you climb up the rankings therefore, Google wants you to create, informative, useful content that other people will find, share and vote for. Historically, this system has been open to abuse - 'I just need more links, right?' but it is getting harder and harder to game the search engines and we are at the point where you can swim upstream and try to cheat your way to a brief stint at the top or simply create and promote high quality content for long term wins - one is working with Google and is sustainable, the other isn't.

I like to think of the search results as a magazine: you want to be the interesting content at the front of the magazine and not just one of the many advertisements crammed into the back pages. The search engines want to show the interesting content, no one really looks at the adverts after all!

What do you need to do?

SEO starts with great content - got that? Say it to yourself again and keep saying it till you believe it. Still thinking about short cuts, link building tools and secrets the pros don't want you to know? Well, maybe start meditating, 30 minutes a day with the mantra 'SEO starts with great content' and let's talk again in a week's time. But seriously, get this basic fact straight in your head and you are already strategically ahead of 90% of the competition.

Next up you need to create some of this great content. Now... I hear ya, "I can't write", "I don't know what to write" but please - your smart people, you run a business and solve problems for your clients on a daily basis and you answer the questions of your clients day-in, day-out. You just need to make the shift to doing it online. Do this and suddenly you are positioning yourself directly in front of your market, establishing your credibility and starting a dialogue with an army of prospects way before that initial contact that leads to the new business.

You may doubt the power of this now but believe me, the first time you are speaking to a new prospect and they say 'I read your post on X' or 'I found your article on Y' you will realise that not only does this generate more exposure and business enquiries, it makes closing the deal all that easier as the prospect already has a glimpse of your expertise giving your credibility a boost.

Six Ideas for Content Generation

So, let's assume you are on board, and want to tackle the competition with content rather than cheap (and worthless) tricks, you just need some ideas to get you started and here are some basics to get you started:

1. What are the top five (or 10) questions you answer from prospective clients? Can you write these up and add them to the site? Use a strong call-to-action so you can continue to help people who have benefited from your knowledge.
2. Case studies - how your product or service solves the problems of your customers. This communicates a solution to a problem and you are looking for people with problems that you have solutions for.
3. Keyword Research - as well as the obvious SEO benefits, keyword research will teach you a lot about your prospects, what they are searching for and how they are searching for it - content ideas will organically grow out of this process.
4. Keep a journal of all questions you get asked over the phone, in person and by email and answer these on your website.
5. Brainstorming - simply talking with your staff at all levels of your business will reveal many common questions that can quickly and easily be sculpted into web content. Everyone from the MD to the customer support people have different opinions and all can be valid and useful (ignore the people in the trenches at your peril).
6. Ask your customers what information or help they need - you can do this via email, in person, on the phone or there are several easy to use (and free in some cases) survey tools like survey monkey that make this a simple process.

If you are hungry for more small business content ideas there is a great post from Rishil here:http://www.seomoz.org/ugc/small-business-seo-content-strategies

Errr, I am still not sure I can do this

Content is one of those things that seems difficult and scary, but if you start to think it through, you are already creating content on phone calls, emails and in meetings but you are only delivering it to one person at a time rather than broadcasting it to your entire marketplace.

You know your customers, you know your products, you already have this content inside of you so it's just a case of getting it out there. Don't feel restricted to the written word either, if you are happier recording your voice as an audio file or creating a video then all power to you! Also, some content is better suited to a certain type of media so give some consideration to delivering your content in the format that is best for your users.

Sounds like a lot of effort, will it really work?

A couple of huge examples of this in action are this very site here: seomoz.org and hubspot.com. Both of these sites publish boatloads of content and subsequently are regarded as leaders in the SEO & Inbound Marketing fields. These are big guys yet, this applies equally as well to the small and medium players.

If you are an individual offering car valeting services, a small business providing accounting services or a large telecommunications company providing a range of mobile phone services this approach works. By providing information that is of real use to your target market you get a chance to engage with your prospects, pimp your credibility and start a dialogue with them before they even know they are ready to buy, buy, buy.

Do you like to receive cold sales calls?

The crazy thing is, most businesses are not yet clued up to this. Sure, they are still marketing and spending time, money and effort on direct mail, cold calling, print advertising and other such techniques. In the Internet age, where people can find what they want online, these out-of-date approaches are more likely to annoy the hell out of your marketplace rather than turn them into prospects & customers so this is where a little effort, in the right direction can differentiate you from the competition and you can start to win big!

Summing it up

I waffle a little (a lot), I know that, I am doing it now, so let's just quickly sum up the most important elements of this so you can concentrate your time and effort on the areas that are going to provide the most results for your time and effort.

1. Start adding relevant, quality content to your site on a regular basis. One article a week is more than 50 articles over the course of the year - work it into your schedule and be consistent.
2. 2. Be SEO savvy - if you are just starting out you want to focus on your content and apply tried and trusted SEO basics to the work you do. The seomoz.org beginners guide is a great place to start for this: http://www.seomoz.org/beginners-guide-to-seo
3. Avoid quick fixes and things that seem too good to be true - if you get an email promising you '200 white hat, organic, google friendly links for £50" or a £100 tool that will allow you to 'OWN THE FIRST THREE PAGES OF GOOGLE' then, ask yourself firstly, why you found out by email and secondly, just how many people can 'OWN THE FIRST THREE PAGES OF GOOGLE'?

Eat Yourself Thin

I like a good analogy to help put the message across and another one that seems apt is the diet craze - want to lose weight? Eat less. Yeah, there is a little more to it but really, just eat less, do a bit more exercise, be consistent and you will get there - the quick fixes, crash diets, pills & potions don't work hence the market sustains itself. Want to do better in the search engines? Add great content, promote your content, interact with your market and help them solve their problems, be consistent and you will get there.

One rule for all

This article is mainly for businesses or people getting started with SEO but equally, as an Internet marketing consultant it's all too easy to focus on link building and the technical aspects of SEO. It's important to remember that part of our job is to coach site owners and to help extract and publish the valuable content.

My goal with this post is that it may inspire you to start writing content and making your site the best it can be and just see how simple SEO becomes once you deserve to be at the top of the pile.

Increasing Your Local Search Presence Through Regionalization

As you venture through Natural Search Optimization, your primary goal is to expand the reach of your website to a global level. What happens when you have a client with specific geographic limitations though? If you or your client has a limited service area, then you should place a particular focus on localizing your website.

The following localization strategies will allow you to improve your local presence, and increase site traffic within your targeted geographic area.

I. On-site Localization Strategies

The easiest way to increase your regional presence is to provide location data across your website. If you provide complete, logical information regarding your place of business and your service areas, you are more likely to appear higher in location-specific searches.

Provide Complete Location Data On Site
An excellent rule to observe, for SEO best practices as well as a localized search strategy, is to include your complete business address on your contact information page. By making it easy for visitors to see your address, you are not only establishing credibility, but also allowing search engine spiders to discover that content. Adding your local phone number can also increase your local presence.

In addition to your primary address, you may also wish to include a list of cities within your service area. Consider including city names in your customer testimonials, and if you dont have testimonials, try to dig some up. Additionally you could provide a list of your service area boundaries ("Serving Utah from Layton to Springville") or mention a few cities that you service within the content of your website.

Regional Keywords And Relative Density
Optimal density for most keywords is from 2 to 4%, however location based keywords are much less frequent in natural writing and must be used in moderation. When adding location based keywords, such as a city name, the optimal keyword density is around 1%, and never more than 2%. Any more than 2% and your writing starts to look unnatural, and becomes hard to follow.

Inclusion Of Location Metadata
While some search engines might ignore location-based meta tags, including them certainly will not damage your site's rankings on the web. You should include tags for city, state, country, zip code, street address, and phone number. Even though the major search engines might ignore these tags, other location based services crawling your site could discover this additional information and add it to their directories.

II. Leveraging Google Location-Based Services

Google offers excellent location based results that are visible to regular users as well as mobile visitors. By including your company information here, your are opening the door to a flood of previously unreachable visitors.

Claiming Your Google Places Page
Often times, the major search engines have already placed your business on the map, and provided their best guesses about what you do. In most cases this can be a great start but you can provide an even stronger impact if you claim and verify your business listing. Search for your business name along with your general location in Google, and it should display your company through Google places. By claiming your listing, you are then able to log in using your Google account and edit the company details. To ensure that only the official business owners can change the information, Google will send you a verification PIN number through the mail.

Adding Appropriate Categories To Your Listing
Once you've verified your local listing, you can create a detailed business profile to appear on Google places. You can edit the categories and specializations, as well as additional contact information and business hours. All of this information could be very useful to potential customers who might be interested in stopping by.

One of the great features of Google places is that it is integrated with Google maps, a service used widely on mobile phones to provide navigation details. You are now able to present mobile visitors with your company address, phone number, and even give them driving directions, all from their mobile devices.

Keeping Content Fresh
Fresh content is accurate content, generally speaking, so when you have updated offers or frequently update your company profile, you gain additional credibility with Google and it can help increase your position in location-based searches.

Google places allows you to offer short-term discounts or promotions for people that find you through local searches. Keeping offers fresh improves the users experience on Google , and can only mean an increase in your search result rankings.

Revisit your Google places information at least once a month to determine how each category is performing, and then use that information to add new categories or get rid of under-performing categories. Additionally, perform a quick refresh every once in a while by editing and re-saving your information. Even if you don't have anything to change, it could help.

III. Geographic Targeting in Paid Search

Not everyone has the budget to spend hundreds of dollars on Google Ads, but if you do, there are some powerful targeting tools and localization strategies to increase the effectiveness of your local campaign.

Location-Based Campaign Settings
When setting up your location-based campaign, you need to already have a targeted geographic location in mind, Do you want to target a bundled region, such as the United States and Canada, or the 10 miles surrounding your tattoo parlor? Google offers a variety of targeting options, including targeting by country, state, or proximity to a specific zip code. You also have the option of excluding certain areas if you feel they wouldn't provide a good result.

Targeting Regional Keywords
In addition to your primary targeted keywords, you might also want to include some location based search queries. These typically have a low search volume, but the cost per click might be much higher depending on local competition. Try to include searches with city names, geographic references, or prominent landmarks (ex: "wasatch front heating and air" or "bay area bicycle rentals")

Setting An Appropriate Schedule
If your business only operates between the hours of 8 and 5, you might not want to run ads outside of those hours. Additionally if you aren't open on the weekends you might not want to display ads then. It's important to keep these factors in mind when you are setting up your paid ads, as they might make the difference in your overall conversion rates.

IV. The Downside of a Localized Search Optimization Strategy

There is one major downside to tracking the effectiveness of a localized search optimization strategy, many users aren't visiting you on the web, but in person. This makes it difficult to directly measure the effectiveness of your efforts in the short term, but you're sure to reap the long-term benefits of an effectively targeted marketing strategy.