I'm not an expert, but I've done some research on my own and it seems to be working alright so far. We all want our websites to show up at the top of the google search results for our area. As clowns, most of us couldn't care less how we show up in a global search, so a lot of professional SEO type things are really unnecessary for us. These are a few things that I've done and have discovered that are bumping my page ever upward without spending more than I'm making.
1. Links - if you read anything about your google rating, you'll see that links to your site are the biggest thing. You need QUALITY links from related sites to your site. To be at the VERY top of the list, you generally have to pay a fortune for the biggest sites (like yellowpages) to link to you. But if you show up on the first page, you're doing pretty well and some of the other things might bump you to the top anyway. Find all the free directory sites for your area, province/state, country, type of service and put your listing on there. Prioritize the sites that will post your link and not just your phone number... those are ok too but most people probably don't look at the directories and it won't help your search results. Get as many as you can find without paying for them, I've paid for a couple in the past and it doesn't accomplish anything.. the only people who look at the actual pages are you and your competition. You can also do a link exchange with local businesses that you think your customers might like as well... you post their link on your site and they'll post your link on theirs.
2. Keywords - if you want to and can figure out how to do it on your site yourself, you can add keyword meta tags, but it's not a big deal. What you really need to focus on is that the keywords that people will use to search for you are ON your pages! I can't tell you how many clowns/face painters have websites that don't list the area they serve on their site.... anywhere! It needs to be at least on your index page and it doesn't need to be listed in a weird way, just somewhere on there. For me: clown, windsor, ontario, face painting, balloons, party, etc. If they are not on your site somewhere, then how will google know to show you for those search words?
3. URL - pay for a custom one or not, I personally don't think it's that big a deal... the free ones that come with free hosting are not all that bad. I did recently start paying for one, because I wanted it. The biggest issue with the URL is to do with time... your site will automatically move up in importance in searches once it has been around for at least a year. A whole year??? Yes, a year. This is where a little patience comes into play, but keep in mind that most small businesses take a good 2 or 3 years before they really start to do well. You can do it!
4. Google Places - sign up... get a google places page. It's as simple as that, it's free and it puts you at the TOP of the search page. Yes, it is slightly separated from the "regular search results," but you're at the top so whatever. A few extra clicks here and there and it's worth the few minutes that it takes to set it up. I think you can even set it for an intersection rather than your home address if you don't want to be so specific as to where you live.
5. Google AdWords - ok, so here you have to pay a little bit. But, you get to pick just how much you want to spend. You sign up and fill in all your info, then you can set a daily budget... when your ads reach that budget, they stop showing up for the day and start again the next day. The nice thing with adwords is that it not only shows on google searches, but in all those little sponsored ads on other websites. A friend of mine told me she was watching YouTube with her kids and my ad showed up! The other great thing about adwords is that you can set who sees your ads based on where they are searching from. The only people that see my ads are searching from my area. Because I'm in a border town, it means that a few people from Detroit occasionally click it, but it's pretty good anyway... I don't have to advertise across Ontario or across Canada, just where I tell it. I can type in actually cities and towns or pick a point on the map and tell it how many km radius from there.
So, there are my main tips on bumping yourself up the search results line. There are many more. If you'd like to share a couple of your tips in the comments, I'd love to hear them!!
Keep Smiling!! :oD
Perry Noia the Scaredy Clown
