On Line Marketing

Monday, June 25, 2007

A Quick Way to the Google Top Spot

Here's a quick way to the top of Google by taking advantage of the number of people doing local searches.

As an example:-

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Here's a quick way to the top of Google by taking advantage of the number of people doing local searches.


You can see from this that the search for 'data cabling liverpool' has delivered www.interconnect-ns.co.uk as number one (out of 765,000 competing pages!).

(The 'map based results' come before of course - more about this later when I'll tell you how to get on this list also.)

The significance of this is that around 45% of all searches are done for local products and services (based on some research that Yahoo did recently). Specifically many people are including geo variables into there search string - liverpool, cheshire, uk, london, northwest, york - etc, etc. so the point is why not capture these searchers? You'll still get ranked for the root term as well, in the example above the root term is 'data cabling'. It will take a bit more effort to get to the number one spot for this more general term but while you are waiting why not take advantage of the more specific searches?

The other thing to note about this is that a more specific search leads to more qualified traffic. If someone types is 'data cabling liverpool' what is he interested in? Exactly, he's declared his intent and when he lands at your site he's a pretty well qualified opportunity to take advantage off.

So, here's what to do...
Decide on a specific geo term you want to capture - kent, manchester, cheshire - along with your root phrase. Lets say you offer acupuncture services in york then the term to capture is 'acupuncture york'. Put this in your homepage 'title tag'. (make it the first two words in the tag and remember no more than 10 words in total)
Make sure you then repeat this phrase a couple of times in the text on your homepage and voila! The next time the spider visits (give it a couple of weeks) you'll get a great google ranking.

Whether you are number one of course will depend on the level of competition, but I'll guess 90% of you will be in the top 5 results; and 10% will be number 1. Please let me know how you do. (jan@janklin.com)

Google Maps - Local Business Centre

Now, let's get back to the map based results. I think its speaks for itself that its a great advangtage to be in this listing. Its also free courtesy of google. All you need to do is register at Google Maps - Local Business Centre:-

www.google.com/local/add/businessCenter

You should see what's below, then just follow the instructions:-



Once you are in people can click on your snippet, see where you are and get directions using all the Google Maps/Google Earth functionality.

One bit of advice to optimise you listing and maximise the chances of being in the number one position. When filling in your decription, position the keyphrase (eg 'acupuncture York') as near to the beginning of the text as possible.

If you need help let me know (jan@janklin.com; 01928 788100)