Local Search Results vs. Global Search Results

Posted: Thursday, April 19th, 2012 by | Filed under: , , , ,
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A common question raised among our clients is “how do the search engines determine between local search or global search?” In other words, how do search engines know what you’re looking for? Do they really know the difference between “wedding” and “wedding nj”?

Google Search

If your keyword can be identified as global or local, the next thing search engines will look at is your intent. If your search is localized or can be considered localized, the search engine will deliver local results. If you’re searching “wedding,” the search engine may go either way, delivered local results in the Google local section, but maybe delivering broad websites in organic results.Well, one of the first things search engines look into at is your location. Search engines will identify your location and whether or not your keyword combination has any local intentions. In Google, you can set your location settings accurately or to where you intend on have a “wedding.” If you set your location settings to a more broad setting (ie: United States) you will get more broad results.

Search engines will also crawl data and reference other searches you’ve conducted to try and relate them to your current search. Aside from your search history, search engines will aggregate information and data from other users to try and best pinpoint what your intent is. How frequent is your keyword combination used? Are other users looking for local or global results? How many clicks on Google local were there based on this search combination? And so on and so forth. Read more …

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Title Tag Optimization

Posted: Thursday, October 13th, 2011 by | Filed under: , ,

Welcome back to the second segment of our series on making sure your website isn’t losing out on any of its own important SEO hotspots. Last time we talked about why it’s so important to embed the right keywords into your web pages. Today we’ll discuss the second checkpoint:

2) Are you using keyword-rich title tags?

Are you using keywords in your title tags? It seems almost too obvious, but we feel it is worth saying again because too often new businesses will launch websites with their web pages inappropriately (or should we say, ineffectively) labeled as “page1” or their company’s name. If you’re looking to improve your web marketing and get noticed on the web, then you should make sure that your title pages use some of the keywords that you’re targeting.

Another benefit of having descriptive title tags is that it’ll help users (and yourself) navigate through your site. Ideally, you will spread your services/products across several pages. Make each page distinct, and if you can, try to put only one product/service per page. You should never clump all your products/services together on one page. Doing so dilutes the relevance of your page in the eyes of search engine crawlers. In addition, making each web page focus on only one type of product/service will naturally lead to the use of more keywords on those pages, and this will only help you in terms of content marketing. Read more …

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SEO Keyword Strategy

Posted: Monday, October 10th, 2011 by | Filed under: , ,

A lot of factors go into search engine optimization, including the design of your website. Check out the following checklist to see if your website needs a few touch-ups to get the most SEO benefits. Are you making sure that you’re…

1) Using the best SEO keywords on your web pages?

2) Using keyword-rich title tags?

3) Minimizing your reliance on Flash?

4) Optimizing your homepage for web marketing purposes?

Let’s talk about the first checkpoint. All SEO companies will tell you that keyword research is a crucial preliminary step towards improving your search engine ranking. However, a lot of times people that are new to internet marketing get distracted by the immediate data offered by keyword analysis tools.

For example, say you just opened your own boutique store and are interested in working content marketing into your business plan. If you care about improving your SEO, then using a keyword analysis tool is definitely a step in the right direction. However, the tool itself is only half of the equation. You, or the SEO company that you hire, make up the other half. Tools such as Google Adwords Keyword Tool can provide you with lots of useful information about your competition as well as how many global/local searches are made for those keywords. But it is up to you (or your SEO) to figure out what keywords to type in and analyze. If you type in “jewelry boutique shop,” you’ll find interesting data about the competition for that keyword, but it won’t be very helpful to you because 1) the competition for that keyword is very high, making it unlikely that you’ll be able to rank on the first page in a semi-timely manner, and 2) you’re better off targeting other keywords that are more likely to lead to conversion. After all, someone searching for “gold custom bracelet milburne, NJ” is probably more likely to convert and make a purchase than someone who looks up “jewelry boutique shop.” The point of SEO is not to attract more traffic to your site for traffic’s sake. The point is to drive in the right type of traffic that will lead to conversion and more revenue for your business. Read more …

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How to Promote Cosmetic Procedures Using Content

Posted: Friday, September 23rd, 2011 by | Filed under: , ,

The cosmetic and health spa industry is more competitive than ever, so it’s important to build your business an online presence. A web designer will guide you through designing a website, but will also share with you the importance of content. When designing a website, you want to be sure there are enough WebPages that you can include descriptive content. Content is key.

Customers interested in cosmetic procedures will often research the procedure first. After learning about the procedure from a general perspective, it’s common that they want to know about the spa and doctor they plan on using.  Most people use the internet to find information. For a cosmetic spa, in order to be found, you need search engine optimization (SEO) implemented throughout your website. Like we said above, content is key, but SEO content is even more important.  When designing a website, it’s important to consider SEO at the same time. You will learn that having a website is important, but without SEO, no one can find it.

After designing a website and incorporating SEO into your efforts, you’re going to want to promote your cosmetic procedures across the internet. Search engines are constantly updating their systems and also looking for new, updated content. By updating your website, blogs and social networking platforms, you can build your online presence even more. Read more …

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How to Choose a Keyword for a Dermatologist Website

Posted: Saturday, September 17th, 2011 by | Filed under: , ,

Dermatology is an industry that offers a number of services, such as Botox, chemical peels, acne treatment, skin resurfacing and many others. All of these dermatology procedures are especially popular in New Jersey. When working on designing a website and implementing SEO into the content throughout the site, it’s important to do extensive keyword research. So, how do you choose keywords for a dermatologist?

Beyond the obvious, keywords referred to as local SEO keywords; include a geographical keyword/tag in the phrase. For example: “chemical peels northern NJ” would be a common phrase searched for in search engines. What’s important for businesses like dermatology is to dig deeper and use specifics. Local SEO is very important for any local business and geography is a large portion of what’s use by search engines to yield results. Combine general keywords, such as acne treatment, eczema, and others with a city, county, region, state or town.

When writing content for a website, you don’t want to go too big that search engines can’t distinguish which services you offer and which areas you service. Local SEO involves a lot of time and effort. As a dermatologist, it’s important to identify what areas are strongest for your business and what services you want to target. Focus on the top ten or top five and then go from there. Once you’ve decided on those, you can rank them on importance and begin the process. Read more …

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How to Choose Keywords for SEO

Posted: Monday, May 30th, 2011 by | Filed under: , ,

The first step in SEO is identifying your target keywords. Although this may sound like a simple task, it really should not be taken lightly. You want to select the right keywords to target, and to do so, you must take into account two critical things in your analysis: 1) popularity of the keyword, and 2) the competition for the keyword.

Popularity of the keyword: Your list of target keywords should consist of only keywords that users will be searching. For example, if you own a bakery, it would make more sense to target “bakery nyc” than “bakery new york city.” Chances are that most people will not bother typing out “new york city” and will instead use the abbreviation. If you build links around a keyword/key phrase that no one uses, then you are wasting your web marketing efforts.

A common SEO mistake people make is to use their company’s name as a target keyword. However, there is no need to target your company’s name as a keyword. To illustrate why, let’s go back to the bakery example. Say the bakery’s name is called Sugary Smiles. A business practicing flawed internet marketing techniques would make sure that their company’s website is ranked #1 on the results page when people type in “sugary smiles” into search engines. The problem with this is that it is only useful for attracting people who already know about your company, but it isolates an entirely untapped channel of potential clients who don’t know the name of your company. After all, the likelihood that someone looking for a bakery in NYC will type “sugary smiles” into the search engine is essentially null. When creating a list of target keywords, you have to get into the mindset of your user. It’s not about what keywords you would search to find your company, but rather, it’s about what keywords the potential client will be searching that will lead them to your website. Read more …

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