How To Get Local Biz Listed on Google? [Best Answer Wins 1x Ticket to Eben Pagan's LIVE LA Seminar]

[sashagilberg]

How Do You ACTUALLY Get Local Businesses Listed On Front Page of Google for Long Term?

Hey,

one of the most common services offered to offline businesses seems to be getting them listed in the top 1-3 positions on google under local keywords which is supposedly pretty easy - but how do you do it?

From what I know thus far you can get a natural ranking of 1-3 by:
- using a wordpress website with the main keyword scattered through out @ ~5% density
- add business to google maps

Apart from writing articles, how do you get local businesses that top position and hold it there for the long term?

I've got an $8k debt I want it gone yesterday. So i'm putting my info product business on hold, come Monday I'll be hitting the streets and talking to business owners in their shops offering website/SEO services.

PS: Who ever has the best answers get's this ticket to Eben Pagan's live seminar in LA on July 12-13 I listed here

[pheonix44]

I would try to optimize it for the keywords that are specific to the area. It should not be that hard to outrank the competition you might have. Building up a couple hundred backlinks naturally over a period of time should give you no problem ranking on the first page. Most local business are strictly that, local, and they think seo is the name of a band or something. Just build backlinks naturally, over the span of a few weeks. You can even outsource this task to someone else, just make sure they do it right.

[sashagilberg]

thanks for that pheonix I didn't think of backlinks!

I know there's probably 100's of threads on this already, but in your opinion what is the most efficient way of building back links for the above purpose without outsourcing and how long do you think it'll take to do?

[Andy]

Hi Alex,

Getting listed in google locally shouldn't be all that hard. There are LOTS of ways to do that and all of them have to do with offering content with a local flavor.

You may want to further consider what your client wants to do with that traffic. Take a look at what your client sells.

Let's say she's a local real estate agent. She could put up a blog with articles on local real estate. Make sure she mentions one of the towns she covers in each article or the county - depending on the area. She could do the same with a standard web site and offer articles on that also.

If your client sells John Deere equipment, then offer articles about using, maintaining the equipment - as well as general articles of interest to the customer.

Now suppose someone from Bloom County types in John Deere, who do you think will come up?

You can do the same with any brand name or even generic terms as long as the content mentions both. The more content one has the more chances of hitting on that search.

Often I think if you simply put up a good page telling about the business and merely listing what they sell then the page will come up.

One more thing - any business can add to the listing that comes up in Google for free. Make sure you add the web address. You should also be able to add keywords relating to the business. Do this first.

God Bless,

Andy

[Quentin]

We do content packages for our clients which works great. Its all about inbound marketing and getting real estate out there so people have a better chance of finding your client.

But be assured its not all about Google.

Its mixing offline and online strategies to maximize their ROI and then creating content and helping them market their products and services.

We did a survey last week and our clients traffic and conversions were only about 20% through google so you need to have other strategies in place also.

A couple of these are doing in house things like getting people coming through their business to fill out a customer card to get prizes or a free dinner on their birthday or whatever is related to your client.

Helping them to post on a regular basis.

Helping them with press releases and launching their site with local papers etc.

Finding out what they have and need then working out a great program for them.

We have come across a few of so called Internet Marketers who have done courses and started doing the offline stuff that are just crap and giving all of us a bad name.

Its not about the dollars but helping these businesses utilize the great attributes of the Internet.

Get this right and the dollars will poor in and you will get more referrals than you can handle.

Get it wrong and the word quickly spreads.

Quentin

[Irishman]

Hey Alex,

Here's the deal. Getting google organic position 1-3 with the "right" method will show very different results based upon the keyword you are targeting. The most effective advice I can give you to be successful is the following:

1. Complete a keyword analysis from Google's keyword tool to find out "how" people are searching for that type of business. i.e. dentist manchester or dentist manchester ct
Find the most qualifying term with reasonable searches per month.


2. Compare them against how many sites are optimized in Google for that keyword.
Do a google search with quotes around search term to find out how many sites with that keyword exists. Then do a google search with: allintitle:keyword
That will tell you how many sites are "really" optimized in Google because the keyword is in the title tag.

3. When you find a low competition, qualifying search phrase with decent searches, register the domain name. ie www.dentistmanchesterct.com


4. Properly create a title tag - using keyword phrase, but also evoking a click-magnet copy to it (many people miss this)


5. Properly create a description tag using keyword, again with strong click grabbing copy supporting your title tag. (title/description tag make up the organic visible SERPs - they must not only be well ranked, but make people "want" to click.


6. Use H1/H2 tags with keyword phrase.


7. Solid keyword focused content that informs or educates your purpose that ultimately leads to a link leading to either their phone number, email capture, or existing website. (its a lead generator page in many ways, but also you can do this to existing page and do a url forwarding to the main site)


8. Name any images on the page with the keyword in it. ie. dentistmanchesterct.jpg
and use the alt tags in like manner.


9. Install a webstats package to reveal keyword/SE traffic


10. Do a search on google for blogs & forums related to industry.


11. Check for "dofollow" link acceptance and make short valuable posts with an anchor text backlink to your site. (firefox has a nodofollow add on which can highlight every link in a page to determine this if you're not good with code)


12. Do this for as many relevant sites as you can find.


13. Digg, Stumbleupon, and create a facebook page with (dofollow editable app) and add another anchor text backlink.


14. Write 5 solid articles about the keyword and anchor text backlink them to your site in the source box, and submit to ezinearticles and other directories.


15 - Upload google xml sitemap and create that profile in webmaster tools to watch google bot visits update


16 - depending on how well you did step 1 and 2, you can be ranked in as little as 4 hours in page one google for your term.

This has worked time and time again for me.

Hope that helps!

Will

PS - I failed to say that I never recommend anyone selling themselves as page 1 magicians. It has proven to be horribly disappointing once the page one HYPE wears off, and your copy doesn't convert. Instead, position yourself and an expert online marketing consultant, and have that page 1 as only a part of your marketing arsenal.

It really is when you consider all else you can do... video, blogging, more social sites, ppc, offline integration, email marketing, etc. Build them a strategy and diversify your efforts, while setting proper expectations.

[alleycatnews]

I actually did this for a buddy of mine who is an attorney in Grand Rapids Michigan. Its not hard.

1. Buy a domain of keyword people are searching. IE he wanted to target divorce so GrandRapidsDivorce.net was purchased. .com wasn't available. (THIS IS SO IMPORTANT AND MAKES IT SO MUCH EASIER.) Lot of businesses will just do last name etc.. Which STINKS. No one is searching for smith attorney if they were they would know how to find you. Don't have to change their domain but at least use it for $10 can't go wrong with it.

2. Used 3 pictures for a slideshow and he recoreded a 40 second "commerical" about his business. Divorce is hard blah blah, call me etc...
We used the traffic Geyser slideshow for that.

3. Used traffic geyser and put it on all the video sites on TG. etc...

4. Built a simple site that basically his youtube video, a link to his main site, and his phone #.

I didn't do ANY other backlinks expect the stuff that is in TG, I didn't do any other promotion.
I think that video and site was done August of last year.

He is #3 overall on google for grand rapids divorce (grandrapidsdivorce.net) 600 searches a month.

He is #8 overall on google for grand rapids attoneys (grandrapidsattorneys.net) 1000-2600 searches a month I forget.

He is #7 overall on google for grand rapids lawyers (grandrapidslawyers.net) 1000-2600 searches a month I forget.

I haven't done ANYTHING with it since then I just watch it to see where things are. And I think I checked a couple of weeks ago and the rankings for those sites were even higher on yahoo.

FYI should be able to charge a bunch for it. I know one guy in TG that was charging $6000 he would go in and do an interview etc... Record video etc.. He was high end but can do some monthly stuff.
I know my attorney buddy was paying $3 per click at one point and doing $500 a month on adwords was also doing about $200 a month on an seo company that had him ranked link on the 8th page (70-80 something like that.) In a day I was on the first page. It was pretty cool.

I think there is HUGE market for it and its some good money. I am going to try and get my lawn care for free in my town by offering this service to someone he cuts my lawn (a little less then an acre) I don't have to buy a mower and waste my time on it and I get him up the search engines. So not much upfront cost but worth it for more business.

Also remember people like attorneys 1 new client can be worth $1000's to them. My buddy never tracked where people are coming from so as far as improvement in his business I have no idea.

Hope that helps.

[jspmedia]

PM sent you about how to listing my way....

[Danny Turner]

Hi
can be done with google maps
Adding a listing - Maps Help

[Amenda Jessera]

Originally Posted by alexgilberg

thanks for that pheonix I didn't think of backlinks!

I know there's probably 100's of threads on this already, but in your opinion what is the most efficient way of building back links for the above purpose without outsourcing and how long do you think it'll take to do?

Yes Alex, It is better not to outsource, If you can spend about 2-3 hours daily, You can do it. There are so many ways to get backlinks. Say, If you can get 30 backlinks per day, within a week you will have 210 backlinks that is more than enough to reach 1st page..... To move further you have to do more backlinks. When you get backlinks you have to make sure that the sources are good ones but not spammy ones.
Well, to get backlinks you can do
1. DOFOLLOW blog comemnting - there are many threads in this forum where you can find on how to find dofollow blogs.
2. Signature Exchanges - You can participate in some other forums and leave your signature links OR you can exchange your links with guys who is having more posts there, that is more adviseable
3. Social bookmark - Bookmark your site to famous bookmark sites and make sure you are getting more votes over there, to do so, add more friends there and do communicate with them etc...
4. Article submissions - Write some articles and do submit them
5. Use angela's package - Get idea about it via searching this forum
6. Do more blogging - Use blogger.com for this

Via all these methods, you can get backlinks, however, If you can get backlinks from PR pages, that is a real bonus for you and that will help you to increase your PR as well as traffic too.

[sashagilberg]

wow awesome response thus far, thanks heaps everyone!

If you have any other tips, put them in now and I'll award the best answer in around 12 hours.

[Beverly le Roux]

Hey Alex, I do Local SEO full time. I actually started doing it to save my family financially and have found some great success through trial and error marketing. I posted a thread on 6-17 in the Make Money Online Section titled, "$2,350 In 6 Weeks Using This Offline Cash Method" that talks about my exact method for getting local SEO clients. Check out the link below. I hope that you will find this information helpful. If you have any questions or want to brainstorm further, just pm me and I'll be more than happy to help. http://www.warriorforum.com/make-mon...sh-method.html

[sashagilberg]

I'm just blown away at the awesome advice shared here, thanks so much everyone!

I'd have to say Irishman gave me exactly what I was looking for and alleycatnews was at a close 2nd.

PM'd you Irishman

[flashgordon]

I got mine listed using the Google Local Business Center service. It takes 3-4 weeks, but once it is done it stays permanent. Just apply and wait for them to send you a little card for verification (like the adsense one), and then you are good. Mine is even a PO Box!

[Sheila]

Great ideas here - there's only one thing I'd add - since google often changes who they give "love" to - when you search for your keyword, record where the top 10 listings are coming from . . . often, they'll be coming from video and other social networking/bookmarking sites. Those are the social sites google loves at the moment, so those are the sites you'd want to go to and get backlinks to your client's money page.