SEO website Help

Yep doing it yourself is the best option in my books, for what you want to achieve it shouldn't take too long at all.

Because you're looking to get ranked for local searches, your first stop should be to index your site with the Google Local Business directory, it will take a while to appear so next focus on your on-page SEO.. this is basically things like your meta description, a good title tag, good site/linking structure, alt tags and of course original quality content etc.

There's a whole bunch of other things you can do, but you don't want information overload so just take it slow at first and get the basics down.

Next you'll want to do some off-page SEO.. which is mainly getting links to your website.. now this is where things can get funny with Google.. too many and Google will see it as unatural behaviour and trigger additional spam filters on your site.

Too few and you may not achieve a good rank. There's no set rule for this because other sites in your niche (and their backlink volume and rate) determines how Google sets the frequency for that niche.

Best advice is keep a steady amount of fresh backlinks hitting your site but never be tempted to add too many in one go and always stay away from link farms and automated linking software.

Relevancy is another important factor (there's around 60 core factors to consider, with hundreds stemming from those) but keeping things on topic is a must, you do have some degree of flexability here for example if your site is about wedding videography theres no harm in linking to a site about wedding cakes, in fact it could be a good idea and even better if it's also a local business. I'm sure others will expand on what I've mentioned so far.

Once you've got all this nailed down then move onto the slightly more advanced techniques like adding a robots.txt and using mod rewrites to your advantage.

There's a whole ton of more advanced things you can do beyond this but for now I think that's enough to get you started?

so mick ...you think that the rss feeds from appropriate site cause the site to zoom to the top ? that is interesting
thanks

We all want to be at the Top. But there isn't a lot of room at the top.

First make sure your site is in order. I like Wordpress and Joomla. But all that matters is that you choose a good platform and template that makes your site look professional.

Now you need to write a unique and descriptive Title Tag for EACH PAGE on your site. And for each page you'll also need a solid Description Meta Tag.

These two tags are the tags that show in the Search Engines. However Google may also pull a description from your body text. These tags are important because they not only tell the Search Engines what your site is about... they are your chance to persuade the visitor to click through to your site.

And while Google is the dominant player in Search, you might be surprised that searches from MSN or Yahoo may actually convert better!

It's important to note that each of your pages should contain text... the first 250 words should be your emphasis. If you don't use much text then make sure to use alt tag descriptions on your images.

Flash and Javascript and other cool tools are not easy to index.

I just did a search on Golf Balls and "Titleist" came up #2. Clearly they rank because their product is Golf Balls and they are a well known BRAND.

So for your local community you want to be the BRAND of Wedding Videography. When people think Wedding Videography in your area you want them to think of you. You do this with your image and your name and word of mouth and how you choose to sell yourself online.

Local search involves targeting your keywords + your local city in the anchor text leading back to your site.

You should consider a Myspace and Facebook page. It's pretty easy to find other people in your city on those services. Now you approach those people and you get on their friends list with a nice looking page that promotes your Brand/Image.

Being creative is a big plus in marketing yourself. Local search defines your market and makes it easier for you.

Then of course you need to get solid quality links pointing back to your site.

This is only a quick summary of getting started. There is so much to making your site appear at the top. But you might not have to do much more than this.

see if this help

1) Blog comments > Very highly recommended... One has to realise first that he.she has to post comments only in Do-Follow blogs and not No-follow
Getting links in No-follow will help you get traffic but will not help you get any link

2) Forum Posting > Please make sure you dont spam any forum, you will get quality links from quality forums only if you dont spam and actually contribute...
Go to google and search for your niche + forums and try and find the best forums... make useful threads and place your links in your signature..

3) Social Bookmarking> The lates and the best way to get high PR links.. just search the net for social sites and you will find tons of list.. now you will want to post to all of them ... OR what i use is onlywire that will reduce your work and help you automate the process...

4)EDU links > Very effective and very difficult to get, so try and get these from your friends or if you know someone in your family

5) Flickr and Youtube > ie Images and Videos , these can get you some serious traffic and can get you some quality backlinks...

Also i forgot to mention make sure you always use your anchor text as your keyword and post your website link in the URL section...

If it is the city you want to target why don't you submit your service to Google Business center, they come up on top for such searches.