SEO Hosting Blog

Does your business cater to local customers? If so, it’s important that you localize your website so that customers in your area can easily find you when they’re looking for your products and services.

Thankfully, increasing your local presence is actually pretty easy. You just have to incorporate these search marketing tips and tricks, and you’ll soon be dominating the competition.

• Use location-based keywords—This is SEO 101 really, but I still see a lot of people mess it up. Let’s say you’re a roofing contractor that offers service to the Houston area. Rather than just using “roofing contractor” or “metal roofing contractor” as your keywords, you should be using keywords like “Houston roofing contractor” or “metal roofing contractor in Houston.” This increases your chances of ranking well for localized searches, and it eliminates irrelevant traffic from visitors from other cities you don’t service.
• Get listed in local directories—No matter where you’re located, you’ll find several online directories specific to your city and state. Some will be general business directories, and others will be devoted to your niche (e.g. Houston contractors directory). Getting listed in these directories improves your presence in the local market, and it helps you gain more quality backlinks to your website. If you can’t find local listings, check your competition’s backlinks. Chances are they’ll be listed in the directories you need.
• Get a Google Maps listing—Creating a Google Maps listing can help your website turn up above the fold in the search results, getting your more traffic and more conversions. Here’s a really good post you should read about ranking for your local keywords in Google Maps.
• Put your address on each page of your website—I’ve always been an advocate of putting your contact information on each page of your website because it: 1)Makes you appear more legitimate and trustworthy with your visitors and 2) Helps Google pinpoint your location for improved local search rankings.
• Guest post and comment on local blogs—Find blogs that target the local community, and become an active member on them. You can start by commenting regularly on each new blog post. Make sure your comments further the conversation, and never use comments as a means to promote your company. You can also ask to become a guest blogger on these local blogs, helping you reach out to the local community.
• Find local online networks to join—Between LinkedIn, Facebook, Yahoo, and message boards, you can find plenty of relevant local groups online to join. Posting regularly in these groups will increase your local visibility, and it’ll help you earn the trust of potential customers as you build relationships with them online.

Do you localize your search marketing efforts? Which tips would you add to this list?

 

As Alice Schroeder explains at the end of her book, The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life, although Warren Buffett is best known for being the second richest person in the world, “above all, he would describe himself as a teacher.”

From sharing his thoughts with small groups at cocktail parties to spreading his wisdom to the entire world through his annual shareholder letters, Schroeder shows throughout her book that Warren has always prided himself on teaching others.

Although he is most highly sought for his investing advice, the wisdom Warren has shared over the decades can easily be applied outside of the world of finance. Because of this, I want to share the following twenty quotes from Warren Buffett, and how they can be applied directly to your job as an Internet marketer:

1) “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

Quote #1 is so powerful that it requires no explanation.

2) “In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.”

Quote #2 addresses the fact that while anyone can look back and analyze what happened in the Internet marketing world during the last three years, it takes a lot more focus and work to gain any worthwhile insights into what is going to happen during the next three years.

3) “Never invest in a business you cannot understand.”

4) “It’s better to hang out with people better than you. Pick out associates whose behavior is better than yours and you’ll drift in that direction.”

Quotes #3 & #4 emphasis the importance of not only focusing on doing what you’re best at, but of also working with people who are as talented and passionate with their own specialized set of skills.

5) “Risk can be greatly reduced by concentrating on only a few holdings.”

6) “An investor should act as though he had a lifetime decision card with just twenty punches on it.”

7) “Much success can be attributed to inactivity. Most investors cannot resist the temptation to constantly buy and sell.”

Quotes #5-7 addresses a major issue within the Internet marketing community. While forums are filled with threads discussing how to make tons of money by creating a site that makes $1 a day, and then replicating the process thousands of times, the truth is that the people who are most successful online are those who focus all of their attention and effort on just a handful of sites.

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Because it’s one of the older search marketing strategies, article marketing tends to get overlooked sometimes. However, I still believe effective article marketing is useful for increasing your search engine presence, building authority, growing your email list, and driving targeted traffic to your website. But you’ll never enjoy the benefits of article marketing if you make these common mistakes.

Mistake #1: Publishing high quantities of low-quality content

When you think of article marketing, you probably think about submitting hundreds of articles to different directories throughout the web. And while quantity is certainly an important part of article marketing, so too is quality. All you have to do is check out any article directory, and you’ll see just how many people are overlooking the importance of submitting quality content.

See, it’s not enough just to clog up space in the search engines; you need to take advantage of these rankings by driving traffic from your articles to specific landing pages on your website. That will never happen if your article is poorly written. Worse yet, a slew of low-quality articles can cause others to view you as a spammer, and that’s a difficult reputation to shake.

Mistake #2: Not using keyword-rich anchor text

One of the main reasons we use article marketing is to build back links to our website. To take full advantage of this, you should be using keyword-rich anchor text in all of your links in the article. This increases the targeted page’s relevance for the keyword in the anchor text, and it can be useful in driving quality traffic to the page. Always make sure you link properly according to the directory’s linking guidelines.

Mistake #3: Misuse of author resource box

The author resource box can be used to give readers a call to action as well as to build your credibility. I’ve already written a post on this subject, so be sure to read these tips on writing an author’s resource box for article marketing.

Mistake #4: Being overly self-promotional

Sure, the goal of any article marketing campaign is to increase your online presence and to generate more leads and sales. However, this doesn’t mean your articles should be poorly-disguised advertisements for your products and services. Articles should be written to educate readers by providing them with quality insight and your expertise. Focus on giving readers tips they can use rather than trying to push your products or services on them.

Mistake #5: Ignoring rules of the directory

Every article submission directory has its own rules for writing and submitting content. These rules include minimum word counts, maximum number of allowed links, and overall quality of content. Always be sure to read these guidelines before submitting an article. Failure to do so will get your article rejected, and it could lead to your account being suspended from the website.

 

Which article marketing mistakes would you add to this list? Share your thoughts in the replies.

Although there is still a little bit of time before 2009 is officially over, since many of you are going to be spending a lot of time traveling and attempting to hide from you in-laws over the next couple of weeks, I thought it would be useful to provide this great reading material now.

While I lost track of how many hours I spent working on this post, it turned out to be my favorite writing experience of 2009. Not only did I get to reread a lot of great posts, but I also got to read many excellent posts for the first time that I had missed during the busy course of 2009.

Because I have benefited immensely from the information contained in the posts on this list, I want to say thanks to every single author who wrote one or more of the posts below!

And now, without further ado, open up your favorite bookmark service and enjoy the wealth of information contained in the Top 100 Internet Marketing Posts of 2009:

January

SEO Higher Learning – HuoMah SEO Blog

You Don’t Need SEO to Rank in Google – Sugarrae

Exclusive Interview with Googler: Kaspar Szymanski – MaxROY.com Blog

Video of My “Preventing Virtual Blight” Talk – Matt Cutts

Predicting ROAS and Launching Better PPC Campaigns – The Acquisio Blog

Why Trust Matters & How To Earn It – Small Business Search Marketing

7 Reasons Your Social Media Marketing Failed (and How to Fix It!) – Stuntdubl.com

Stop Discounting: How to Add Value Instead and Build Loyalty – Datadial Blog

February

Social Media Marketing FAQ – Traffikd

The Psychology of a Linkbait – Search Engine Journal

Big Brands? Google Brand Promotion: New Search Engine Rankings Place Heavy Emphasis on Branding – SEO Book

It’s a New Me (As Seen on Google) – WSJ.com

Click Here For Better Usability And SEO – SEO Scoop

77 SES London Takeaway Tips & Tricks – SEOptimise

The Long Tail of Page One Rankings – Search Engine Journal

March

Aaron Interviews Ben and Karl from Conversion Rate Experts (CRE) – SEO Book

Outspoken to Speak, Blog At PubCon South! – Outspoken Media
(each of the twelve liveblogging links leads to a detailed recap of that session)

15 Wordpress Plugins That I Can’t Live Without – Search Engine Marketing Group

The Perfect Link Request Email Template – Wiep.net

2009 Social Media Optimization: Back to Basics? – aimClear

UK Search Engine Market Research in Depth (Graphs) – Eduard Blacquiere

Google AdWords Conversion Tracking 101/201/301 – Search Engine Journal

50 SEO Tips for Online Retailers – Econsultancy

Liveblogging Schedule for SES New York – Outspoken Media
(each of the sixteen liveblogging links leads to a detailed recap of that session)

30+ Google Analytics Tools, Goals, Segments, Filters, Hacks & Resources – SEOptimise

April

SEO Since 1999 – SEOmoz

Low Hanging Fruit and PPC Keyword Opportunities – Search Engine Journal

Case Study: How I Used Twitter to Generate 35,967 Extra Hits to my Site in Just 14 Days – Winning the Web

Information Architecture at IMSB: Build it & They will Come – Social Desire

How To Monitor Your Rankings Using Google Analytics Advanced Filter Segmentation – Blogstorm

Google’s Love For Newspapers & How Little They Appreciate It – Daggle

35 Non-Google SEO How Tos, Tutorials & Other Resources – SEOptimise

50+ Google and Yahoo Search Shortcuts Cheat Sheet – Search Engine Journal

Small Business SEO: How To Launch That Web site – Outspoken Media

May

Link Building from A to Z – SEOmoz

33 Reasons to Use Twitter – Search Engine People

41 Ultimate Tips from SMX London 2009 – SEOptimise

80+ SEO Job Interview Questions – Ben McKay

Intelligently Crafting Content – Search Engine People

Link Development Training: How Link Building for SEO is Like Picking Up a Girl – Stuntdubl

Top Social Media Blogs – blogRank

101 Blogging Headlines – Magnetic Web Content

Thought You Knew About Online PR? Think Again – Datadial Blog

80+ Online Resources for the Digital Enterprise – WebMama

How to Write PPC Ad Copy: Four Ad Templates that Cause Clicks and Conversions – Search Engine People

85 Reasons Why Website Designers/Developers Keep SEOs in Business – Search Engine Land

June

The Complete Google Analytics Power User Guide – VKI Studios Blog
(each read more link provides a detailed breakdown of that feature)

8 Key Points to Multiple Niche Sites And Controlling Back Links – Search Engine Journal

Social Media & Search Marketing: Not The Same Old Stuff – Outspoken Media

Learn SEO in 30 Minutes a Day – SEOmoz

A Brief History Of Social Media – Social Media Rockstar

What is Internet Liberalisation and Why Should you Care? – Cornwallseo.com

56 Local SEO & Search Resources for Business – SEOptimise

9 Strategies for Finding Incredible Content – Search Engine Journal

The Link Builder’s Guide To Analyzing SERP Dominators For Link Opportunities – Search Engine Land

Is What’s Good For Google Good For SEO? – aimClear

SEO Best Practices: SEOmoz’s New Policies Based on Updated Correlation Data – SEOmoz

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When we talk about article marketing, we usually discuss how to write compelling articles, where to publish them, how to target the right keywords, and how to build more back links. One of the most often overlooked aspects of article marketing is the author’s resource box. This is the little box that appears at the end of each article you write. It includes some information about who you are and what you do. It also represents a huge opportunity for driving traffic to your website.
So, what should you do to capitalize on the author’s resource box? Here are the basics.
• Build credibility—Because just about anybody can publish content on article directories, many people don’t place a lot of trust in these articles. That’s why you need to do everything you can to show readers that you’re trustworthy. The first thing to do is to state your name. Including a picture is a good idea as well. You should also state your credentials (i.e. what it is that makes you qualified to write on the subject). Just be careful not to go overboard here, stroking you own ego. Keep it short and professional.

• Call to action—Of course, the ultimate goal of article marketing is to promote your products and services. So, you need to give people a reason to take the next step to learning more about you and eventually becoming a customer. Think of your author resource box as a P.S. in a sales letter. This is where you want to send out a solid call to action that entices readers to act. Tie your call to action into the theme of the article, and avoid gimmicks (e.g. Don’t say “Can you really make $5000 a day? Click here to find out). To make your call to action even more irresistible, you could offer a free eBook or whitepaper to those who click-through.

• Keep it short—Your author’s resource box shouldn’t read like a novel. Ideally, it should be about 2-3 sentences long. This gives you room to state your credentials and to include a strong call to action. Anything else will take away from the call to action and create too much clutter.

 

What do you include in your author’s resource box? Share your tips in the replies.