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by on April 23, 2011

Local SEO – Tracking Your Website Traffic

If you are a small business using Local SEO do you know what your website traffic is?

Most small buslocal seoinesses hire a local SEO service and then rely on them to send them monthly reports. The problem is, the SEO reports you are receiving may be incomplete.

Here is a common scenario for most small businesses trying to use local SEO to drive customers to their website.

  1. Small business owner determines their local web presence is not working.
  2. They search for a local SEO service and get a free consultation before deciding to hire them.
  3. The Local SEO company gives them an overview of the keywords they will target.
  4. They optimize your website for keywords searchers are using to find their type of business.
  5. They use a back linking strategy using anchor text targeting those keywords.
  6. They send you monthly reports to update you on your progress.

Sounds simple enough doesn’t it? However there is a major flaw regarding your actual progress and your monthly reports may not be showing you all the facts.

Local SEO success requires targeting the right keywords!

First of all, if the local SEO company you hired is targeting easy to get, yet low traffic keywords, they may indeed get you the top Google  rankings they promised but not the traffic you need to attract customers. Unfortunately, you get a monthly ranking report that boasts top Google rankings for the selected keywords but no traffic report.

You need a rankings and traffic report!

The traffic report was purposely left out because they do not want you to see the low traffic these keywords are actually delivering. Without an accurate traffic report you have no way of knowing why your phones are not ringing and are left scratching your head wondering if it is you.

If you are getting good traffic from your keywords and the phone is not ringing you need to look at your website design.

Why are people coming but not converting?

Website is too cluttered - people get there and cannot effectively find what they need. They just leave!

Website is not delivering on keywords -  If your website does not match the keywords you are targeting people again get frustrated and leave.

Poor call to action – Do searchers have to dig deep to find a way to contact you? You should have a clear call to action on every web page and make it easy to reach you. Your phone number should be easy to see and your contact form simple to fill out. Tell them what to do next!

Top rankings without traffic is common in local SEO!

Unfortunately, too many local SEO services take the easy way out by targeting easy to rank keywords that do not get enough traffic to justify the time and money to rank for them. I see this all the time. This way they can guarantee you top Google rankings and deliver on their promise!

How to avoid targeting the wrong keywords using local SEO

Before signing a contract ask to see the traffic reports for the keywords you are targeting. Any local SEO company worth their salt is using sophisticated keyword search software and can show you daily searches for specific keywords. Remember, if you are a local business you do not need thousands of searches to get customers. But if the keyword is only pulling 1-2 searches per day you are wasting your money.

Ask them to install Google Analytics on every web page and give you access to the stats. Google Analytics is a Free and powerful website tracking tool and is easy to install. It gives you tons of information about your website including your top keywords and traffic to your website.  There is too much information here to list but you can also see what pages searchers go to and how long they stay. A good local SEO company will use this info to help you improve your conversions.

Any local SEO service that will not do this should be fired and replaced with someone that will.

Tracking your website traffic for your targeted keywords is the key to local SEO success.

If proper keyword research was done and your website is ranking high you should see increased traffic and more customers contacting you. Isn’t that why you hired a local SEO professional anyway? To get more customers?

Are you getting the right website traffic reports? Is your local SEO service targeting high traffic keywords? If you are not sure or you answered no, contact us for a free analysis.

We use multiple keyword research tools that give us a very accurate search estimate and we will tell you if you are targeting the right keywords or wasting your money. We will also check your website to see if Google Analytics is already installed so you can demand a full traffic report. Above all, we will look at your website and tell you why it may not be converting well.

For your free analysis go to Local SEO GoldMine and request a free analysis or call our local SEO specialist Jeffrey Taylor direct at 602-538-5661 and pick his brain for free!

Local SEO is important to reaching more people in your local market but it must be done right if you expect results!

 

Filed Under: Local SEO Tagged With: , ,
by on January 15, 2010

SEO Tips for Home Business – Keyword Research

Get your Home Business web pages on page one of google using simple SEO techniques.

You have probably been told more times then once that SEO  (search engine optimization) is way too complicated.

I am here to tell you that it is not as complicated as you think. I have been doing SEO for 15 years and in some ways it is easier today than it was 10 years ago. Why? Because back then we had to optimize our web pages for 8 different search engines.  Today we only optimize for one:  Google.

Even though the competition for keywords is greater today, I have found that most marketers do not pay much attention to SEO and that’s where you can move in by doing a few simple things to improve your standing.

Our goal here is to get your web page to appear on page one of the keywords you are targeting. I am assuming that your website has already been indexed by google and is showing up somewhere in their index.

Over the next few days we are going to go through some simple steps that you can do to help improve your rankings. No technical jargon, just some easy to follow tips.

Let’s get started! Keyword Research First

The internet is all about content.

People search online for content relevant to what they are hoping to learn about or buy. Search engines are the vehicle that people use to find content. That is why Google is one of the biggest companies in the world. They provide a fast and easy way for people to find stuff.

Simply put, Google is a place where Searchers and Internet Marketers meet online.

Internet Marketers are driven by profit motive and strive to get searchers to come to their web pages. We are constantly trying to learn what searchers are searching for.

Meanwhile, searchers are trying to find what they want and we strive to make them find us in their search.

All content is discovered when searchers type keywords (search terms) into the google search bar. These keyword phrases are what determines what google will place on the results page. Since everyone is different keyword phrases will vary.

Some people will simply put a few keywords in the search bar, while others will type questions. Finding out which keywords people are using is the key to you determining how you will target your markets. The fact is, most people will type in a 2 – 4 word query when using the google search bar.

Before you start working to get page one rankings you need to verify that your keywords are even being used. It does you no good if you are coming up number one in google for keywords that nobody is searching for.

Adwords is a great way to test keywords if you have a few dollars to invest for a short campaign. Just set up an Adwords Campaign with 5o or less keyword phrases you are targeting and set the limit to 10 dollars and put your click bid in an area that is not too high or too low.

The best indicator of keyword popularity is not the cost per click but how many advertisers there are in Adwords for that phrase. If you see 30 advertisers competing for your phrase you can bet that somebody is making money.

Common Keyword Research Mistakes

  1. They guess and assume what keywords their customers use when searching the search engines.
  2. They choose keywords that are too broad.
  3. They choose keywords with too much competition.

Now that you have determined the niche you will explore you must find out the main search term you think people will use to find your web pages.

Go to google and type that search term into the search bar. Check out the first 4 websites that come up in the organic results on page one, because that is your main competition. Copy these web site addresses into a notepad for use later.

Check your search term for competition.

Go to http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/link-popularity-checker.shtml and type in the domain names of your competition to see how many sites are linking to them.

Don’t despair, you can try different variations of your search term and do the process again until you find a main keyword search term you can dominate.

Once you determine your niche to conquer you must now analyze the traffic your search term is receiving. It does not matter if you found a niche to conquer if nobody is searching for it. No traffic means no leads! The topic you have chosen to go after must have traffic for it to be effective going forward.

This where you can now use the Free Google keyword tool to not only see what kind of traffic it receives but also get a list of alternative search term phrases.

Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal and enter your keyword phrase.

You are looking for keyword phrases that have 500-1000 searches per day or more. Anything less is not worth the effort. Take note of the similar search phrases and put them on a notepad. You will want to use them as secondary keyword phrases as you build more and more web content.

The Best Keyword Tool I Have Ever Used!

Powerful Keyword Tool: One of the most powerful and time saving keyword tools I have ever used is a program called Micro Niche Finder. It is $97 to buy and it has literally saved me hours of work.

It uses the google keyword service, but digs in deeper by telling me the competition and gives me great suggestions, and is simply a great way to get all work done in one sitting.

You will find yourself using this tool almost everyday as you explore new niches and search for low competition, high traffic search terms.

To check out Micro Niche Finder – click here

Keywords are your guiding light to generating traffic to your web pages. The internet does not work without keywords and your ability to center all your marketing around specific keywords being used by your target markets and effectively getting seen by google for these keywords will determine your success or failure.

The process of finding your niche and the surrounding keywords is the starting place for all your marketing going forward!

In the next post we will discuss learning how google sees your page right now and how to market your web page in the search engines.

Free Internet Network Marketing Boot Camp Link below.

If you are serious about taking your home business online and want to learn exactly how to do it go to my Free MLM Internet Marketing Boot Camp and enroll right now!

Filed Under: Search Engine Optimization Tagged With: , , ,