First Attempt at Local SEO
-
Hi everyone, I've only been a member for a few days but this community is extremely supportive of one another, and I appreciate that very much. Here's my current project.
I've done IM for awhile but now I'm helping a massage therapist with his personal brand here in Chicago. I've used the tools here to identify a few of the bigger sites and ten local keywords that he'd like to rank for - things like chicago massage, cheap massage therapy, and chicago reiki, his favorite.
I'm currently getting him set up with Google Places properly so he shows up there. We have a Facebook and Twitter underway. We have a blog he can use if he wants - though I'm not sure how insistent he's going to stay. I'm planning a separate page targeting each of the keywords we're after.
His competitors each have a couple local blogs talking about them, so I'm going to contact some local bloggers and offer them free massages in return for a review. He also is getting registered in some of the local business directories - mostly the ones I see the other sites already in.
Finally, I was going to use some Build My Rank sites to bulk up his backlinks - maybe focus 10 on each keyword, with 5 going to the main keyword and 5 going to long tails.
How does this sound for a simple, first SEO project? I'd love to hear some feedback, even if it's just "sounds great". I've never put one together for a client, and I'm thrilled/nervous.
Thanks!
Philip
-
Everything sounds good, save for the Build My Rank portion. On their How It Works section of their site (http://www.buildmyrank.com/how-it-works) it says "We publish your article randomly on 1 of our high page rank, aged domains. You control how many articles are published daily for each of your domains." They only require 150 words for articles, so it seems you're looking at a ten sites with collections of random short articles.
-
I wish I lived in Chicago. I would gladly post a review with a link in exchange for a free massage! This is a great idea!
-
Don't overdo on keywords in anchor tags...use broad match and a lot of branded:
DO: If you need soothing massage in Chicago, check out XYZ at www.XYZ.com
DONT: If you need soothing massage in Chicago, check out XYZ at www.XYZ.com. -
Great share by the way to both Mik and Dan.
-
Great 1st time strategy. The main thing that you have shown is that you are planning ahead and pro-active about SEO. I like the ideas on getting bloggers to talk about you with a free massage swop - great idea.
Dont forget some basic social media presence like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare
-
Great advice from Dan. I just wanted to add that we use getlisted.org to make sure the basics are covered . A really good tip is to use the GPS companies to make sure your business is listed correctly( Navteq: Teleatlas) . Also can't hurt to have your who.is info match your exact NAP (Name,Address,Phone) which has to be the same across all citations.
Also a tip for on-page optimization is the use of hcards you can see the documentation here Schema.org the major engines agreed to support this initiative. For non coders this markup can be produced here.
I'm rooting for your success. Hope this helps .
-
Hi
If you have not checked out these few resources, highly recommended for local;
Your plan sounds pretty good, although I am not familiar with "Build My Rank".
The one thing I am curious about is, how is his website? Is it technically sound (crawlable, indexable)? Does the navigation/architecture (albeit small) make sense? Is it optimized for on page keywords? Does it have a great design, and is it full of useful information that's easily digestible?
That's just my general sense, that you have a good focus on off-site seo, but just don't forget about on-site, especially when it comes to users arriving at the page and taking that action; calling, emailing, sharing or whatever it may be.
Hope that helps! Its exciting, and good luck!
-Dan
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Will Facebook traffic hurt our SEO? Should we put our blog on the core domain or sub domain?
We are concerned that social traffic could hurt our SEO. What do you think... Our average time on site from organic search traffic is 7 minutes. Facebook traffic has an average time on site of 1 minute. Both traffic sources are going to different pages. If we generate 3 times as much traffic from Facebook as we do from google this will pull down our overall average time on site and engagement levels big time. Should we put our blog on the core domain or a subdomain? Right now we are holding back on promoting on facebook because we are concerned it could hurt our SEO, what do you think? Should we try to get as much traffic as possible from Facebook even though the engagement is much lower? Should we put our blog which is generating the low engagement traffic from facebook on the core domain or a subdomain?
Social Media | | rvshare0 -
I am the only one at my company responsible for SEO
This includes onpage, blogging, social media, link building, content creation, reporting, etc Etc ETC!!! The company I work for has about 100 employess and we are an eCommerce company. I have recently taken over all the SEO duties, as the person before me left. In the past we relied heavily on link building but that seems to be losing steam with Panda and Penguin. Is it even possible in this day in age for one person to keep a company afloat in the competitve SEO world? If so, what should I devote most my time to?
Social Media | | joebuilder0 -
Youtube and SEO
Hello, For a game site I would like to use Youtube for SEO purposes. And I need a little advice on this. How would you use these video's without spamming? There are a lot of tactics to use Youtube. Create channel and put your desired url in the profile (link back to your site), Put your desired url in in the description of the video (link back to your site), Put the created youtube video also on your own site to drive traffic to youtube, and back. And get views. Put a created channel on your own site to drive traffic to youtube, and back. And get views. Other tactics I don't know.... Can someone advice me what tactics I can use without spamming, I'm afraid that if I use combinations of the above mentioned tactics I get an unnatural linkprofile.... Thank you in advance. Regards, Thomas
Social Media | | ThomasH0 -
Thinking of trying a SEO Badge Widget project... any advice?
What are some best practices for launching a Badge program? I've been researching this for a large brand... they feel they want to have these badges to promote certain blogger partners within a niche. However, we have no way to "Rank" the bloggers... so it's an arbitrary factor, IMO. What are some of the hooks that other successful badge programs have used? Is there a definitive post around here with suggestions? I'm really on ground zero and have been tasked to execute on this and really seem to be flying blind. Any guidance or suggestions would be helpful! Thanks!
Social Media | | localsearchlabs0 -
Is using a platform to automatically cross post on the social media networks good for SEO?
Is cross posting automatically on the multiple social media networks good for SEO or bad?
Social Media | | Melia0 -
Social or SEO?
all, would you consider social bookmarking to be part of an SEO package or a Social Media Package? thanks
Social Media | | imageworks-2612900 -
What Tools Do You Use For SEO Social Media Audits?
Hi, With a the growing trend towards social media signals starting to have a decent impact on Search Engine algorithms, i'd like to know what tools people use for "social media site audits". I generally use a fair amount of manual observations for social media profiles such as profile completeness. Hubspot offer a few really nice tools over at http://grader.com/ that allows a quick 'score' for an account. I then take a look at the 'buzz' around a company over a few mediums such as Twitter Search, Google blog search, BoardReader, HowSociable.com and SocialMention.com Facebook Insights is good (if you own the domain) for testing the number of likes. Im still yet to see a decent tool for testing entire domains for # retweets, Diggs etc. What are your favourite tools for SEO Social Media Audits?
Social Media | | DigitalLeaf0