You want to capture local business leads, but you’re worried about the cost.

Then why not give your business a boost with these FREE Local Internet Marketing tips.

Tip 1: Keyword Research like a Pro

Yes I’m afraid so keyword research, that old chestnut.

Why you ask; what’s keyword research got to do with my business?

Well the fact is that most visits online start with someone typing something into a search box.

You do want to improve your Local Internet Marketing right?

Then the trick is to understand what your prospects are typing in to find businesses like yours and use this knowledge to help them find you.

The following tips will get you started:

1. Start with a piece of paper and write down the phrases that people might type in to find your business.
2. Ask your friends and family for their thoughts, don’t laugh they’re only trying to help.
3. Combine the phrases with your main location phrase i.e. “Blue Widgets” becomes “Blue Widgets Bristol” and “Bristol Blue Widgets”.
4. Run the phrases through https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal (with exact match selected) pay attention to the “Local Monthly Searches” and download the data for future use.
5. You probably shouldn’t target phrases with very low or zero searches.

You can use this data as a starting point for everything else, from creating site content to enhancing your Google Places listing…

Tip 2. How to Add Your Business to Google Places

A listing in the Google Places snippet can be shown above the normal search results and best of all its completely free.

You don’t even need a website.

If you don’t have a Google Places listing you should get one.

If you do have a Google Places listing you should check to see that it’s up to scratch.

Even if you’ve never added a Google Places listing Google could still have constructed one from the data found about your business online.  It will almost certainly be incorrect so you should look at improving it.

For info on how to add or modify a Google Places listing see: http://www.google.com/support/places/

Verifying the listing via the telephone is usually the best way to go unless you like waiting around.

Once you have access to the listing pay particular attention to the following:

• Follow the rules set down by Google (see http://www.google.com/support/places/)
• Ensure that your business name is correct, don’t place your target keyword(s) in the business name field (unless the keyword is part of your business name) or you may get your listing rejected.
• Ensure your telephone is the correct local number (i.e. not 0800…, 0845… numbers)
• Include your correct web address (if applicable).
• Ensure that your address is correct.
• Include your opening hours.
• Double check the Map location.
• Add images preferably your logo first (Google by default chooses the first uploaded image for display in the results).
• Add any other detail that you can to make the listing look professional.
• Remember the keywords that you came up with in Tip 1, use these as a starting point to write a decent description (don’t stuff the description with keywords or you may get your listing rejected).
• Use the categories that Google suggests, don’t use custom categories (hopefully you will find ones that match/somewhat match the keywords you discovered in Tip 1).

Also see Tip’s 3 and 4 for more on optimising your Goggle Places Listing.

Tip 3. How to Add Local Directory Listings & Citations

Local Directory Listings and Citations can get your business found on the internet.

They can also improve the results for your Goggle Places Listing.

You can find places to list your business by searching for “[Your City] Directory” in Google

Warning! Beware Incorrect Details

It’s important to both Google and your prospects that your details are correct in these listings.

You can normally fix incorrect details once you’ve found them.

Modifying the following Google searches should uncover your incorrect listings:

• [Old Business Name]
• [Business Name] [Incorrect Detail]

Another Warning! Beware Paid Links

You may find paid listings being advertised while researching the above.

Paid links from the wrong sources can be problematic and can get you into trouble with Google; if you want to look at paid listings my advice would be to consult a reputable SEO.

Tip 4. Encourage Reviews! How to Enhance Your Reputation

One of the best ways to enhance your reputation is by getting online reviews.

Online reviews are also one of the best ways of improving your Google Places listing.

One obvious place to get reviews from is Google Places itself.  In addition many of the sites found during your research in Tip 3 will also allow reviews.

There are many ways to prompt / encourage people to review your business:

• Ask your fans on Facebook / Twitter (don’t be too pushy)
• Ask for reviews on your website
• Add review requests in your e-mail signature
• Ask for reviews offline

Remember to link through to the site where you want reviews to be posted.

Warning! Beware Fake Reviews

Google doesn’t like being manipulated.

Please don’t fake / incentivise reviews, you can land yourself in trouble if you do this.

Tip 5. Local Press! Going Offline to Get Online

Getting noticed in the local press is a great way to get your company noticed.

The fact that the coverage is offline is immaterial; lots of local papers have online counterparts.

If you don’t have anything to say, sit-down with a blank sheet of paper and come up with some ideas.

Leverage the differences that exist between you and your competition.

Find out how to write a press release (do a Google search) remember to include all of your business details in your release including; phone number, web address and business address.

Bonus Tips! 6 onwards…

Anyone can action the above tips and they are relevant to every local business (that I can think of).

The following bonus tips either cost money are difficult to implement, or require knowledge that you may or may not have:

• Build a Website
• Start a PPC Campaign
• Get on Twitter
• Get on LinkedIn
• Get on Facebook
• Start a Blog
• Figure out what your competitor(s) are doing and replicate / improve on their methods

How to Pay for These Local Internet Marketing Tips

These Local Internet Marketing Tips are Free.

If you liked the tips please share this article with your friends/contacts via the services below.

If you have any questions/comments post them below.

You want to rank without annoying Google.

You’ve read about black hat SEO and having your site banned scares the bejesus out of you.

But how to rank without getting under the skin of the big G, after all you’ve been trying for ages and nothing seems to work.

What secret sauce do you have to plaster over your site pages to make them rank, how many chickens will you need to sacrifice, perhaps praying will help…

But you know nothing good comes easy… Sacrificing chickens is just wrong…

And in reality there is only one answer… Focus…

You need to focus on who you’re targeting, what they search for and the content they care about.

Like it or not, lack of Focus is the reason why business and websites fail, this is also true for SEO, especially if you want to be Ethical…

The following tips (although not all exclusive to Ethical SEO) will give you a great start:

Tip 1. How to Focus on The Best Keywords

Keyword selection is the most important part of SEO; get this wrong and you run the risk of positioning your site in a wasteland away from all relevant traffic.

If you’re thinking of setting up a business online then keyword selection should form part of your marketing plan.

Before you come up with your Business Name Ideas and before you go cap in hand to the bank you should understand what keywords your prospects type into the search engines.

The following ideas should help you find your keyword Zen…

Tip 2. How to Embark on Keyword Discovery

Someone once said that nothing is more inspirational than a blank sheet of paper.

You know the products / services that you’re going to sell, so the first step is to put yourself in the mind of your potential customer and write down the phrases that your customer might type in to find said products / services.

Include everything, don’t delete anything.

You should also check out a Thesaurus and ask family and friends for inspiration.

Tip 3. How to Establish Keyword Traffic

Take the list and try to establish some idea of traffic potential by firing it thru a Keyword Research Tool.

Generally I use the Google Keyword Tool (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) you can modify the search by location etc. and download the keywords into Excel for easy analysis.

You can also consider using Wordtracker and/or Keyword Discovery in conjunction with the above.

Please be aware the numbers are out of whack and will only offer a general idea of what’s out there, you may also find that your keyword list expands as you find other related phrases.

Also be aware of Match Type when using the Google Keyword Tool and how this can affect the results.

The only real way to be sure of what people are searching on is to run a PPC test, however this needs to be set up correctly or the results returned can be duff.

Tip 4. How to Work Out Keyword Relevancy

Consider the impact of words that can have multiple meanings a “drinking fountain” is a “drinking fountain” obviously a place to drink at. On the other hand a “fountain” can be both a place to drink at and a type of water feature.

If you’re only selling to the UK, key phrases containing the word “US” are irrelevant.

But if you’re selling anything, then a key phrase containing the word “buy” is highly relevant.

Highly competitive single word phrases (often known as vanity phrases) can get a lot of traffic but often provide less or no results in terms of sales etc.

Avoid single word phrases normally 2, 3 or 4 word phrases are better targets for your SEO efforts.

Score your keywords as relevant / somewhat relevant / irrelevant.

Tip 5. How to Work Out Keyword Competition

Ideally you want to target phrases with relatively high traffic and relatively low difficulty.

To do this you need to start to understand how competitive each keyword is.

Even general searches in Google will give you some information on the number of competing pages (note the number of results shown just below the tool bar). Please also note that the results shown only give a rough idea of the number of pages.

There are also advanced operators such as allintitle (find more advanced operators at http://www.google.com/intl/gn/help/operators.html) that will allow you to restrict your search and help you understand more clearly the number of competing pages.

It’s important to note that Google doesn’t like automated searches; and using advanced search operators in particular can upset the big G (especially if you use them repeatedly): “Google’s Terms of Service do not allow the sending of automated queries of any sort to our system without express permission in advance from Google. Sending automated queries absorbs resources and includes using any software… …to send automated queries to Google to determine how a website or webpage ranks in Google search results for various queries.”

Source: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66357

If you’re worried or overwhelmed by the above consider talking to a decent SEO…

And finally a simple keyword search in Google to see if your competition is below par; for example if the site owner is pictured on holiday red faced holding a wine glass, if the site has little content, or the content is poorly written, these and other points may lead you to the conclusion that you could do better.

Phew, if you made it through that, then well done, hopefully you are still focused, so onto the next step…

Tip 6. How to Focus on The Best Domain Name

Domain names can be useful in terms of helping you rank; this article is getting long, so if you’re interested in domain name selection take a look at “Business Name Ideas! Top 15 Tips for Start-up Success” an article of mine specifically dealing with this issue.

Tip 7. How to Focus Your Site’s Content for SEO

I’m not going to be able to teach anyone SEO in 1 or even a few articles, if you don’t know SEO you have 2 choices hire someone who does, or start reading up.

This from the horse’s mouth so to speak… Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide (http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf)

Please be careful what you read there is an awful lot of rubbish out there, as the following will hopefully start to demonstrate…

Tip 8. How to Avoid The Search Engine Friendly Myth

“All the sites I design are search engine friendly”, this and similar comments seem to be a commonly bandied about by web designers.

I have no problem with the phrase “search engine friendly” excepting that “search engine friendly” (and the other phrases like it) can be either intentionally or unintentionally deceptive when it comes to SEO.

I can’t count the number of times that:

• I’ve seen a site with glaring SEO issues rank well.
• I’ve seen a site failing (or being far less successful than it could be) due to technical SEO issues.
• I’ve seen an SEO or a Web Designer claming that they offer SEO, and their site is awash with technical SEO issues.
• I’ve been told by a client that their site is SEO friendly and then… well do I need to go on…

It’s not a Myth it’s just Mythplaced:

• I would never advise this; but in terms of making your site successful, you can get a lot of things wrong from a technical SEO standpoint and still rank well in the natural search results.
• All too often a “Search Engine Friendly” site seems to lead to a design where there is little or no focus on the keywords that are targeted, and that can be a real problem.

What I’m saying…

• I’m saying that in my opinion you should avoid making SEO mistakes and give your site an immediate advantage in your niche.
• More importantly I am saying that ideally your site shouldn’t be just search engine friendly it should be focused and built around the keywords that you’re targeting.
• Focusing on keywords is beneficial, not only because Google responds to this, but because your prospects will as well.

Tip 9. How to Create Great Content That Google Loves

You need to add as much value to your site as possible; Google rewards good unique content, users respond to good unique content, so start creating some…

• Look at your keyword research, does it give you any ideas.
• Look at your competition, what do they do that you can do better, what do they do that you can do differently.
• Don’t be limited by the written word there are many ways of producing content that people will just naturally link to.

There are tons of other ways to create content, but actually these 3 steps best reflect what it takes to be different within a niche.

Tip 10. How to Create Great Links That Google Loves

To be 100% Ethical the best way to get links according to Google is to never build any…

“The best way to get other sites to create relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can quickly gain popularity in the Internet community. The more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it. Before making any single decision, you should ask yourself the question: Is this going to be beneficial for my page’s visitors?”

Source: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=66356

That’s a bit limited for some niches, there are also some widely accepted ways to actively build links that are considered low risk, however as the scope of this article is Ethical SEO I’m going to stop here.

In short then Google wants you to be exceptional enough for people to want to link to you.

Bonus Tip. How to Be Exceptional

And now the grand finale of the post… and the tip is…

You need to be exceptional…

If you succeed here then a lot of the other stuff is optional.

Being exceptional is not as tough as it sounds its more about being different, being aware of that difference and leveraging the difference to help your SEO.

Any Questions

I am happy to answer any questions you might have about Ethical SEO, feel free to comment below:

So what makes an Ethical SEO Company Ethical? Perhaps one can find an Ethical SEO by searching for “Ethical SEO” in Google or perhaps by searching for “Professional SEO” the reality is that these are often just words, targeted because they have a relatively low level of competition when set against the number of historic monthly searches.

Now I’m certainly not saying that the companies that rank for the above phrases are in any way unethical or unprofessional the fact that they have selected these phrases at all is to their credit.  And yes I get the hypocrisy; this post including the title tag, page title and content are obviously focused on optimising it for the phrase Ethical SEO Company.

What I’m trying to get at here is that Google has no way of telling how a company operates or conducts itself, it simply returns the best results that it can given the available parameters.  Broadly speaking (and greatly simplified in order to explain my reasoning) there are 2 factors that dictate how search engines rank pages:

1. Onsite/Onpage SEO (Which can include Domain Name Selection as well as Optimised Title Tags, Internal Links, Visible on Page Text, Page Titles etc).
2. External Inbound Links (that are pointing at the site pages hopefully, but not always from relevant, respected or trusted websites)

The first factor is completely in the control of the webmaster in question; all it takes is knowledge of SEO to put the content in place to fulfil this part of the site optimisation.  The second factor is the external links coming into the site pages, to put it simply Google and the other search engines look on these links as one site voting for the other.

In an ideal world a company would set up a website, call themselves an Ethical SEO Company and create the onsite content that makes web site owners want to link through to them. In reality most companies (even ethical ones) will find it difficult to achieve this type of inbound link. Most companies have to build quality content and even then work on building links to their site.

So what makes an Ethical SEO Company?
Answer: “Some of the Above”

To find out what makes for Ethical SEO have a read of the following pages, these are Guidelines set out by the Search Engines to tell webmasters and site owners how to follow (or should I say how not to break) the rules:

Yahoo! Search Content Quality Guidelines:
http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/search/basics/basics-18.html

Google Webmaster Guidelines:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer=35769

Google Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Guidelines:
http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291

Bing Webmaster Center Help:
http://help.live.com/help.aspx?mkt=en-us&project=wl_webmasters

Dmoz Guidelines:
http://www.dmoz.org/guidelines/

If you want to hire an ethical SEO then do some research, you have been told that the company you have contacted is ethical (and they may well be) but don’t just take their word for it, understand what you are paying for.

“Ultimately, you are responsible for the actions of any companies you hire, so it’s best to be sure you know exactly how they intend to “help” you.” SOURCE: http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=35291

I have been racking my brains trying to think of a truly wiz bang idea for my first official post on this blog; it suddenly occurred that too much thought = no work.  So I settled on coming up with a list of third party resources to educate and inform those who are about to hire an SEO or develop a website.

Google Webmaster Guidelines
The Google Webmaster Guidelines are a good place to start to ascertain Googles’ position on SEO and what to look for when hiring an SEO consultant.

Google Search Engine Optimisation Starter Guide
If you want to obey all of the rules this is an excellent overview of the basics.

The SeoMoz Beginner’s Guide to Search Engine Optimisation
The SeoMoz Beginner’s Guide to SEO is again an excellent overview of some of the processes used by SEOMoz a well respected company.

High Rankings Forum
Run by the famous Jill Whalen this is a great place to ask your SEO related questions.

Digital Point Forum
Another great Forum although unlike High Rankings I feel that often some of the less likely theories go unchallenged.

So there it is my first official post, more to come over the next couple of days whan I have a chance to think about some meatier topics.