Local Search (SEO) Marketing

The Evolution and Importance of Search Engine Optimization

search engine optimization for local businesses

About twenty years ago, if a business wanted to be found they would purchase listings in the yellow pages or relevant magazines. They’d buy advertising space near bus stops or on billboards. The proximity between the general public and the content was the key factor, and the more traffic a location got the more expensive those advertisements would be. The crucial theme of those days was, if you want your business to make money you’ve got to invest it in advertising.

Now a decade into the twenty-first century we have the internet. There’s still physical print advertising, but larger players have entered the game: Search Engines. No longer are people fully relying on magazines, yellow pages, or billboards to inform them of businesses they would be interested in. They sit at their personal computers, type in a simple query, and a whole optimized list of relevant businesses appears before them. In the span of about 30 seconds, people have instant access to services and products. And typically about 30 seconds after that, someone has made up their mind about which business they are interested in.

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This is a symptom of the fast paced generation that we live in. Information has to come clear and fast. In such a multitasking oriented, easily distracted, energy and productivity driven, waste no time generation, consumers don’t have time to sit around and wait for the answer to come to them. They’re going to the answer.

Google is a major player in this game because it has been the most widely used Search Engine for over ten years. They also control the game of advertising, because 85% of people use the internet to find a business, and 74% of people on use Google to search for businesses.

Therefore, when you hear the term Local Search Engine Optimization (Local SEO), it’s synonymous for “get high rankings on Google in your area.” As a top Santa Rosa SEO provider, we’d like to tell you a story:

Search Engine Optimization Companies – The Good And Bad

Since the rise of Google’s power in the game of advertising many SEO-centric businesses have risen to proclaim their ability to get your business to the very top of the mountain that is Google. In the early 2000’s there was an outcry of SEO “guru’s” who, back then, flooded websites with hundreds of keywords to gain dominance in those types of searches. These sites provided absolutely no benefit to the user looking for legitimate information. Google caught on. Those sites were punished.

The methods to game Google evolved over the years. As Google got smarter, so did the SEO businesses and professionals. We know this because we’ve been observing it from day one.

At Social Media Ninjas, SEO has always been a major tool of ours to help businesses like yours excel at bringing search traffic to your Santa Rosa or Sonoma County business. Unlike those companies who suffered severe downfalls for themselves and their clients, we stick to very safe, strategic methods to gain exposure for your business. We are absolutely confident that we can improve your business significantly, without reverting to hazardous and potentially harmful strategies.

As mentioned above, the internet has become the primary source of information worldwide, and we want to express to you how much it plays an impact on traffic you get.

People are becoming informed and making an effort to educate themselves before making decisions. We would guess that very few people walk into a local business just because they ‘happened to be in the area and need that service.’ Consumers and clients do their research prior to committing to a purchase. If your business is not visible where they are searching, you won’t get very much business.

We’d like to open up a line of communication and education with you. We encourage you to contact us with any questions you may have. Chances are your business needs an SEO enhancement, and we’re more than capable of helping you get that boost your company needs.

How It Works

search engine optimization for local businesses

First, we assess the market of your business and various areas of local competition. As we’ve mentioned earlier, search engines are looking to list websites on top that most benefit the searcher. We fully take into consideration what people are searching for in your market, and we give them exactly what information they are looking for. Typically, when it deals with local business, consumers search for services, locations, prices, discounts, and they primarily do this while keeping in mind how many positive reviews a business has. That translates to less incoming traffic if your business has very poor, too few, or no reviews. A proper reputation marketing campaign should coincide with any SEO campaign. Being the #1 business for your service in your area will do you little good if your reviews are poor.

Content Strategies

You have very little time to research what your customers are searching for, which is why we do that research for you. We help you put together a content strategy to answer the primary questions of customers. Most of the time, when we analyze the current state of our customers’ on page content, we find that the business is answering the wrong questions. We have tools that allow us direct access to what people are searching for, and we’ll use this to boost your relevance in your market.

Other Considerations

Many times we find our clients’ websites to be perfectly relevant to their market yet have poor execution. Examples of this are the over-use of graphical images (slow loading times), over-use of flash-based content (poor user experience, unpredictable, incompatible with many devices), over-use of info-based images (search engines cannot read its content), or poor navigation structure (users cannot get. No website is the same, and we treat each project individually, developing a custom-tailored strategy moving forward. Upon conclusion of the project, you’ll have a website that loads fast, is easy to navigate, can be read by search engines properly, answers the questions that your customers are searching, has prominent contact information, and has enough quality content to deem you the authority in your market. These are just a few examples of upgrades we’ll offer your website.

Blogging is Good for Rankings

search engine optimization for local businesses

If you or people on your staff love to write, you have a major advantage against your competition. Two websites who are competing for that coveted #1 ranking on Google will have to work hard to attain and maintain it. One high-powered method of achieving that relevance is fresh content. If you deliver new content to your website users on a weekly basis, you will benefit tremendously. Blogging is the medium for this content delivery. Blog posts are 300-700 word miniature articles that discuss a wide variety of topics. For casual bloggers, this means they write about whatever topic their website is based on. For businesses, this means they write about their expertise in their market and company-specific information. Despite what content you’re churning out, if it benefits your customers or prospective customers, you’ll benefit from it in the rankings. Search engines see fresh content as a well of knowledge – businesses who blog often display that much more commitment to their customers!

If you are one of those who loves to write about your business in your free time, we’ll guide you through the process of maintaining a blog on the powerful WordPress platform. You’ll receive detailed training how to manage your blog, bring readers in, and increase your rankings.

SEO Services We Provide to Santa Rosa & Nationwide Businesses:

  • SEO-Focused Website & Blog
  • Keyword Research
  • SEO-Tuned Website Configuration
  • Homepage Photo Slideshow Intro Video**
  • Phone Call Tracking (150 mins/mo included)
  • Website Lead Capture/List Opt-In Form
  • Interactive Map With Directions
  • Migration & Editing of Existing Site Content
  • Hosting Fee (Main & mobile Website; includes Automated Weekly Backups)
  • Create Mobile/Smartphone-Optimized Version of Website

Monthly Services Include:

  • Analytics & Ranking Reports Monthly
  • Google Places Listing (claim/create)
  • Bing Local Listing (claim/create)
  • Yahoo! Local Listing (claim/create)
  • Facebook Places & Deals
  • General Directory Submissions (one-time)
  • Niche Directory Submissions (one-time)
  • Posting Client-Provided Customer Reviews
  • Custom Photo Slideshow Video Creation
  • Video Submitted To Video Sites
  • Premium Backlinking Strategies
  • Article Writing
  • Article Submission/Distribution
  • Press Release Creation & Distribution to 150+ Sites
  • Strategic Keyword Research (Add’s KW’s)
  • Google Places Coupon Management
  • Social Media Promotion
Social Media Ninjas, Reviews

I see you both working so hard to create our new website. It is looking AMAZING and I’m so impressed with the look and what you are trying to achieve with functionality as well.

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hugh Groman, CEO

Greenleaf Platters/Greenleaf Provisions

5 Star reviews - Social Media Ninjas