When you are hungry you know what you want, in this case let’s say that cheesy slice of pizza. Now that you have determined what you want to eat, where are you going to buy it from? There are over 10 pizza joints near you and all offer the same thing, pizza. But some offer better quality, others were introduced by a friend, some really don’t have what you want, but the food is okay. Now what? You have all of these choices and you don’t know where to go.

Lets break it down, you want to go somewhere were it’s a popular place, the pizza is delicious, they offer other great food and of course they offer the best cheesecake ever! So out of all of these restaurants some may be known for their customer service, others may have a greater selection on the menu, but in the end you want the place that has it all. It’s the same concept when it comes to keywords. If you don’t have it all, then you are loosing to your competitors … big time!

All of these different aspects to a website include keywords. These keywords will let search engines know the purpose of your business/services and in the end give you more authority. Keep in mind, that is a small portion of optimizing your website, but one of the most important parts.

Here are some handy tips to remember:

• Think like the hungry customer, not like the owner of the restaurant. —- Think like a user and not like an SEO expert.
• Get a variety of ingredients customers like. —- Having unique and creative content that people like will attract more users.
• Your content is your main dish and your keywords is your ingredients!

Questions about what keywords best fit your niche? Don’t hesitate to contact us!

Everyone wants their site to receive a lot of traffic, but when it comes to search engine optimization, sometimes it’s tough to know where to begin. Below are five tips to get you started with SEO and help make sure your site is search engine friendly.

Understand Keywords for Maximum SEO

Keywords are one of the most important parts of SEO. They are the words or phrases that your users submit as a query to one of the search engines.  So how do you make the most of keywords on your site?

1. Place keywords in the title. Search engines pay a lot of attention to the words and phrases placed in the <title> tag.
2. Make sure your <h1>, <h2> and <h3> tags contain keywords.
3. Place keywords at the top of your content. Words and phrases that are near the top of your content carry more weight than those lower on the page.
4. Place keywords in your last paragraph. Search engines understand that important terms are often included in a closing summary paragraph.
5. Avoid keyword stuffing! This is very important! It will adversely affect your ranking if Google thinks you’re intentionally over-using keywords in an attempt to boost your results. A general rule of thumb is to keep your keyword density to less than 5%.
6. Write naturally. If your writing sounds awkward because you’re trying to sprinkle too many keywords into the content, you’re taking the wrong approach.
7. Use the right keywords. This may seem obvious, but many sites are often surprised by the keywords their users are searching on. If you need help researching which keywords your audience is searching for, there are commercial services like Wordtracker that can help.
8. Avoid using the wrong keywords. This is often a matter of careful writing. Imagine if you repeatedly spelled ‘whether’ as ‘weather’. Besides leaving a bad impression with your readers, you can imagine the search results may not be what you had expected. Using the wrong keywords can also be a problem if you are prone to repeatedly using pet phrases or slang in your writing. The important point is to be mindful of the words you are using when creating your content.

Create Linkworthy Content

Having inbound links to your website from established, reputable sites that have content similar to your own can really help your search rankings. The important point here is that quality matters. A lot of people who are new to SEO will engage in link exchanges with just about anyone. Search engines are pretty good at identifying a link from a reputable site vs. one from a link farm.

Provide Quality Content

You may have heard about Google’s recent update to its search algorithm called Panda. Overnight, thousands of sites saw their rankings plummet. Google sent a clear message with this latest change – quality matters.

To rank well with search engines, provide well-written, authoritative information. One way to ensure you’re creating good content is to simply ask yourself, “Is this content helping my users solve a real problem?”.

Another point to keep in mind about content is that size matters. I’m not suggesting you need to write epically long posts, but they should be at least 300 words.

And for the record, spelling, grammar and punctuation are indeed a mark of quality content! Of course, it’s not necessary to be a grammar expert, but you should at least run spellcheck and thoroughly proofread anything you publish.

Optimize Your Images

Most web designers know to include an ALT attribute for accessibility reasons, but it can also help your SEO. Place keywords in the ALT and TITLE attributes of your images to optimize their search potential.

Another tip with regard to images is giving them descriptive, keyword-filled file names. For example, if you have an image of a flat screen television you offer for sale on your site, don’t simply name it product.jpg. Instead try something more descriptive like, flat-screen-tv.jpg.  A good file name can be as important as the ALT attribute.

Optimize Internal Links

Having links to other pages on your site helps search engines notice them. For example, say you’ve written a series of posts on typography. You should make sure you create links between the posts to help point search engines in the right direction.

An important point to keep in mind with regard to all links is the anchor text. Instead of “click here”, use a descriptive term to increase the relevance of the link.

Wrapping It Up
Creating content that ranks well with search engines takes time and practice. But SEO is a tool everyone who publishes a website should have in their kit. Do you have a favorite search engine optimization tip I left off my list?

Do you want to see your website at the top of Google rankings with a map to your office or store?

Dream System Solutions SEO offers Google Local Optimization which gets your local business listing ranked in the first page of Google search results when a future customers searches online in your area.  Called Google Local or Local Business Center, Google now allows local businesses to compete online within your local city area.  With Google Local Optimization Packages you can get instant online exposure and new business within days.

Have online searchers see a map to your office and phone number when they search online

The key to success is more than just creating a profile.  Dream System Solutions SEO packages uses a complete process to maximize the keywords people are using to search for your business correlated to the keywords your website already features.  You don’t have to have a high ranking website to instantly see your website and business at the top of Google Local results.

Google Local Optimization Features:

1. Ranking for Best Keywords in Your Local Area
2. Boost Your Current Business Listing with More Traffic
3. Map to Your Office or Store Online
4. Phone Number Available without Clicking into Website
5. Drives Local Online Traffic to Your Website
6. Increase Your Brand with Videos, Photos, and More
7. Maximize Reviews of your Business

Rank at the Top of Google without even having a Website

With Google Local Optimization you don’t even need to have a website for your business to have online customers find your company and give you a call.  Google Local Optimization creates the most productive online profile that will allow your company to be seen online for the most competitive terms for your industry when a person searchers in your area.

How Does Google Know Where a Person is Located

When you log on to the web you create what is called at IP address.  This is like your address to your house only it is your online house.  Through you IP address, Google is able to know where you are located.

Google Local has multiple features that allow you business to have maximum exposure online and Authority SEO knows how to utilize each one for the greatest return on investment.

The best part of Google Local Optimization is that it is one of the best uses of your marketing budget you will ever spend.  If you have heard that SEO can take a long time to see results that is not the case with Google Local Optimization.  You will see your local business listing and map featured within days.

• 54% of Americans have substituted the Internet and local search for phone books
• 90% of online commercial searches result in a local offline purchase
• 61% of all local searches will result in a transaction
• Google Local (or Maps) are displayed in 1 out of every 13 searches on average (or roughly 9% of page-one search results)

So how do companies get listed in Google Places results? They can be listed from a number of sources pulled by Google™ places and/or submitted to Google Places manually by you or an SEO consultant. The great part about Google places is you don’t even need to have a website to be listed in the results – but it will certainly help with customer research and conversion if you do. Another point to consider if are currently listed or submit to be listed is HOW you are listed in these results. Google Places allows you to create and/or edit your listing and content - so don’t waste the opportunity to optimize your listing by including your keywords and phrases into your listing results. 

Along with a number of ever changing factors used to determine Google Places (local) results is where your company is listed in relation to the city center (or centroid). The closer your company is listed to the center of the city, the more likelihood you will display prominently in the results. This of course can lead to abuse but it is certainly to your advantage if you have a physical address close to the centroid if you wish to score well on these results.

It is not uncommon to see companies show up prominently in the places results and mistakenly think that because of this; their website is optimized well for the search engines. In most cases, this is simply not the case. As discussed in our section on keyword SEO, just because you might show-up prominently in Google Places for a commonly searched term doesn’t mean you are also showing up in other searches as well. Moreover, around 40% of all searches are unique “long-tail” type searches that are far less in volume but much higher in quality and results. Most long-tail searches are referred to as “money” searches because they tend to be highly focused and come from people who are actually looking for something specific. So don’t be confused by the results provided in Google Places – yes they provide prominence with certain searches but they should not be considered a replacement for a good local search engine optimization strategy.

The Growth of Mobile Browsing

As of 2008, there are around 228 million mobile subscribers in the United States, a 6% growth year over year. What is more startling is the 45% growth over the same period of time in mobile browsing – or people who are searching the web from their mobile phones and PDA’s. A recent study by comScore also shows that 1 in 5 online business searchers with an internet-accessible cell phone have conducted a local search through their phone.  So if you are a local company, you need to ask yourself what the growing use of mobile browsing means for your business.

Many local companies have poor website design SEO and therefore do not show up optimally in mobile web-browsers. If you have a website now, take a moment to look at your website through a cell phone or PDA and see how it looks. Part of an optimal website design process is to understand the desired customer journey through your website. Once this is determined, you can now take that journey yourself through your cell phone or PDA and see how easy or hard this now becomes for your website users. Often times a local search through a PDA may be as simple as people trying to find your phone number, email, and/or physical address through these searches. So when in doubt, a minimal approach is to make sure that these journeys are easily accessible to mobile users and your website is not too choppy and unnavigable in these type of browsers.

Google Places Optimization Strategies

Here are a few ways in which you can improve your local search engine optimization:

• As discussed above in “Understanding Google Places,” it is a good idea to add and/or modify your Google Places listing and make sure that your listing is fully optimized to include your SEO keywords and phrases.
• In order to build more citations for your listings, it is a good idea to claim and optimize ALL of your key directory listings on the web. The best place to start is to go to Get Listed and claim all of your key listings on the web. It is also a good idea to add your listing to Localeze as well.
• Create multiple listings for additional cities and locations where you do business. For example, if you provide services in multiple states and/or cities, it doesn’t hurt to setup mailing addresses (near each city center of course) so your services will be displayed in the maps results for each location.
• Create and/or modify your listing to include your most prominent SEO keywordsin your listing details. You will also need to add an image/s, any videos, promotional items, etc.
• Since customer ratings are one criteria in Google Places results, encourage customers to provide positive reviews for your company in local search results. For example, look at each Google Places results for a business and notice the “More” link to the far-right of their listing. When you click on this link, you will notice a number of tabs below the listing, one of which is the “Reviews” tab. Ask your customers to write a positive review for your business and provide you with the highest rating possible.
• Add a geography section (or geo block) to your web pages that include all of the states, cities, counties and boroughs that you serve. Make sure to also include any additional ways in which people also search for these same areas by name such as DFW (Dallas Fort Worth), NYC (New York City), etc.
• Include your primary geographic area/s of service along with your primary SEO keywords so they come up on a regional basis. For example, you have far less web page competition on the search engines for “Omaha bankruptcy lawyer” than you do by targeting the term “bankruptcy lawyer” alone. Besides, this allows you to geo-target your searches to begin with while trying to avoid traffic from areas you will not serve. It is also important to include these geo keywords into other website design SEO areas of your website as well since many of these sections receive more prominence than others.