SEO – National Vs Local
Aug.01.2009 
Due to the exponential growth of the web, the process of gaining and maintaining high search engine listings – known as Search Engine Optimisation or SEO – is becoming incredibly challenging for everyone but for the smaller local business, SEO is turning into a one-sided war. Quite simply, there’s just not enough room on the first page of the search engine results pages for everyone and inevitably, the first to be frozen out are the small guys.
For small businesses, facing their industry’s big names in the search engines can be a no-win situation. Think Asda versus a corner shop, Tony and Guy versus a small hairdresser and Stagecoach versus a local drama school. By focusing on national SEO (thanks to much smaller resources) a local business is unlikely to ever appear alongside these business behemoths at all. And we all know that it is a rare person who bothers to click onto the second page of Google. Never mind pages 3, 4 and 5.
In 2006, iProspect, a search engine marketing firm based in Massachusetts, USA, stated in their White Paper Search Engine User Behavior Study, “The importance of appearing high in the search results has increased over time… more search engine users are clicking on the first page now (62% [2006]) than in 2004 (60%) than in 2002 (48%). Inversely, fewer search engine users are willing to click on results past the third page now (10% [2006]) than in 2004 (13%) than in 2002 (19%). Fast-forward to 2009 – and assuming that these trends have continued, a business’ appearance in the first pages front of the search engines results, is more crucial than ever.
More recently, AOL released figures on CTR (click through rates) for the different positions in their index. The data set was sufficiently high enough to be considered accurate and thus can be expected to reflect traffic levels across most search engines – Google included. According to AOL’s results, only 10% of all searches resulted in clicks beyond page 1 of the results.
Yet, many small businesses bring SEO failure upon themselves, by not distinguishing between local SEO and national SEO. Local SEO is similar to national SEO – but with one notable difference. The keywords and content (images and information) are geographically specific. While national SEO focuses on broad keywords, such as “Plumbers”, local SEO uses local modifiers: “Plumbers, St. Albans, Hertfordshire”. And while the traffic will be lower in local SEO campaigns, they will pull in more qualified prospects. After all, a plumber in Chester is of no use to an overflowing toilet in St. Albans. Optimising locally also helps to build local relationships. In his 2008 book “The Complete SEO Copywriting Guide for Search Engine Rankings and Sales Conversion – Content Rich”, Jon Wuebben estimates that every month a billion local searches are made, and that it’s growing at a rate of 20-30% every year.
Thanks to recent algorithmic changes by Google over the last 12 months or so,the likelihood of locals finding you when they type in “Your Trade, Your Town” is now much higher. Nobody really knows precisely what Google has done, or is currently doing for that matter – we only know what works and what does not through our own exhaustive testing. What we do know, however,, is that Google is increasingly placing much more emphasis on local and geographical searches. It has even been rumoured that soon, users will be able to search Google within their own geographic parameters. So by modifying their sites to target local keyword phrases, local businesses will undoubtedly see significant improvement in their search engine placement – especially as local or geographic keyword phrases have much less competition anyway. The modifications required to optimise locally, include placing the chosen geographic keyword in the following areas:
- Title Tag <title>
- Meta Description Tag <Meta description=”…”>
- Heading Tags <H1>, <H2> etc
- In the page content (bolding them for added weight, if possible)
- In an Alt tag or two
- In the footer of the home page
But remember NOT to keyword stuff- once or twice per tag type or content section should be sufficient.
Google’s Keyword Tool is a great tool with which to find effective keyword phrases: https://adwords.google.co.uk/select/KeywordToolExternal. Here, a business is able to generate keyword ideas in two ways – by getting Google to scan the contents of their own website, or by inserting descriptive keywords (for example, “clothes shop Bath”). Once one of these methods is selected, they insert either the URL of their website, or a few keyword phrases into the search box. The results page will reveal, not only related search terms, but also the average search volume per month.
A free Google Maps Listing will go nicely with these newly modified search terms. It’s a highly effective way for local businesses to build up an online presence. In fact, it’s a must. To make use of this powerful tool, a local business must first create an account at https://www.google.com/accounts/ With this account, the business will be able to sign into Google’s Local Business Centre http://www.google.com/local/add?hl=en-gb&gl=gb. And it is here that they can create their free listing – including their contact details, opening hours and even product images and YouTube video. Once a business has been verified and included in Google Maps, it can edit the contents at any time.
As well as making it even easier for local customers to find local companies, using this tool gives local businesses a second bite at the cherry to appear on that coveted first page. This is because, in the majority of cases, Google will stick up to 10 of these listings ABOVE the normal organic results, when a geographic keyword is used. Go try it – search Google for plumbers + your town or city and see what happens!
Yahoo Local is another excellent local SEO resource. It offers a similar service to Google’s Maps Listing. It’s not free however – the price varies according to the business location and the keyword phrase utilised. But as all BT Internet users have Yahoo as their default search engine, it comes with a huge advantage. Think of all those potential customers!
Other tips…
A further advantage of local SEO over national SEO, is that the popularity of famous landmarks or buildings in any given town, can be leveraged. Let’s say you have a clothes shop in Brighton. By simply embedding a picture of The Royal Pavilion on your site, for example (assuming it has been tagged appropriately), you’re likely to pull in a heap of local traffic.
Allowing customers to leave reviews on your website is another great promotional tool. As your customers are likely to know you personally, they’ll be more likely to leave favourable reviews. And as the readers of these reviews are likely to be other locals, the reviews will hold more credibility than those that appear on more corporate and national websites. In this way, local trust and credibility is built.
If you are a business that gets most of its custom from the local market, yet are still relying on national SEO techniques to get you high up in the search engines, then you are risking your website disappearing into the depths of the internet altogether.
WINDOWS hosting – No Extra Cost!!
So…. there we were looking at our so-called competitors, offering inferior packages for a higher cost – when we noticed that we had fallen into the same trap!
For some reason, all of us are charging a premium for Windows hosting, our initial reaction was to scrap this charge!!
WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT WE DID!!! – No more extra charges for windows hosting at INSTA Host. Same Great Price, Same Great Service, Same Great Hosting!!!
Jesus saves!………….(we hope you do too!)
How often do you back up your website?
We have updated our back up facility within your control panel so that larger sites can now backup their sites quickly and with the minimum of fuss. We would strongly recommend backing up your site at least once a week to ensure you are not susceptible to any data loss.
Using our CP to back up your site is so easy there really is no excuse not do it. All you have to do is log in to your INSTA Host Customer Center and access your control panel. Once you are in your CP click on “Backup/ restore” found in the “File” section. From here you can choose to create a full back up of your site of pick and choose from your list of directories with just a click of the mouse. This will download your website as a zip file to your computer. Job done!
The rise and rise (and rise) of social networking
Please take a look at our community software….http://www.instacommunity.co.uk which can be purchased at our INSTA turnkey store HERE
Following on from our recent post about Hitwise’s research in to social networking in the UK yet more research is pointing to social networks as being THE growth area online.
Nielson Online has released findings in to the use of social networking around the globe and from a virtual standing start a few years ago their category has exploded in to 4th place.
Grouped with blogs to create a category named “Member communities” they have now over taken email and are only behind search engines, portals and PC software (I’d argue ‘adult sites’ would be in there somewhere if they were not consciously excluded in this type of research).
Other stats that jump out are:
- 67% of their research panel use member community sites
- 1 in every 11 minutes online are spent on these sites
- The 35 – 49 age category saw the biggest increase in uptake
- UK mobile web users are the most likely to access these sites through a hand set than any other country
- 69% of the UK online audience visit a member community site
Social networking doesn’t really offer anything new in terms of what you can do (posting on a board, send a message, chat online, share images…) but what is different bringing all of these in to one handy place where our ‘friends’ can access them.
I wonder how it will be before we can search the internet from Facebook?
This looks like a great time to jump on to the social networking band wagon and our addition of social networking software Elgg to our CGI one-click Internet library of one click install programs lets you to take full advantage.
You can read Nielson’s press release summary here: http://www.nielsen-online.com/pr/pr_090309.pdf (PDF)
PS, dont forget that we offer a fully installed INSTA community over at http://www.instasite.biz
INSTA Host on Twitter
We have joined the web 2.0 (or is it 3.0 now? I’m not sure) social media revolution and you can now follow us on Twitter
To avoid becoming spam, we have given ourselves some guidelines you can expect us to follow…
What we will tweet about:
- Links to useful 3rd party research, tools and resources
- Twitter exclusive competitions
- Blog update alerts
- Twitter exclusive promo codes
- Updates on new product features that benefit you
What we won’t tweet about:
- Updates on the weather
- What we had for lunch
- Links to our corporate press releases
- Our weekend plans (unless they are particularly awesome)
Follow us: http://twitter.com/instahost_co_uk
