Are you curious what search engine to use to improve your SEO rankings? Wondering exactly how to go about it? This report will help you to make a clear decision.

General SEO and Local SEO

In order to help you make clear cut decisions on which will serve you best we have to compare and contrast the two broadly used SEO types – General SEO and Local SEO, the type of SEO you use is important to get to your audience. Consider the following points.

• General SEO is not user specific while local SEO is user specific. What this means is that it is not able to put up content that targets audience from a particular area. For example, if one is selling clothes, they need to have a particular audience and explain this clearly. Because your audience is specific to region or of a certain class, you cannot use general SEO. You have to use Local SEO to make sure your website is optimized for local search patterns.
• General SEO may lack the in-depth components required to optimize one’s SEO ranking, while local SEO’s are much more detailed as it targets a specified clientele, hence more content and are specific.
• General SEO reaches a wider audience, while a local SEO reaches a smaller audience.
• General SEO is not region specific while Local SEO is.

Why does it make more sense to use local SEO?

Local SEOs are user specific, this means that a business owner will have done enough research to know what they are selling, to whom they are selling it to and if the product or service suits the needs of the clientele from a particular area. One good thing about a local SEO is one is able to provide specifically what is in the market. They are also about to give in-depth content of their goods or services without the need to be vague. Local SEO also helps bring customers closer because a well done website will encompass things like: prices (which are relatable to customers), their location, ability to deliver within certain time limits, etc. While a general SEO is good as it can be reached by a larger audience, local SEO’s are the best for businesses because it targets ‘real life’ potential customers. These are people a business owner can reach and deliver to without hastle.

Trend and changes in Google algorithm

Google algorithm, in simple terms is the search “language’ that Google uses to help people using the search engine quickly and easily without difficulty. While 10 years ago much emphasis was not put into this matter, the internet has grown exponentially making it a necessity to come up with new ways to help users quickly find what they are looking for. For instance penguin, panda and hummingbird algorithms.

Panda relegates perceived low quality websites in preference to high quality sites.  However, what determines the quality of such sites to panda is the content and use of keywords. The unfortunate bit in this, is sometimes the content could be stolen. This necessitated the creation of penguin.

Penguin may be seen as the fairer of the two. Penguin is targeted at originality. Meaning those that are found stealing content will rank lower. For a website owner who doesn’t post much content on their website, penguin is a great algorithm. Unfortunately, when you have few back links on your website, penguin ranks your website lower. This is because it is a system that is based on trust from other websites.

A comparison between the top 3 ranking search engines

Google, Yahoo and Bing top the list of search engines.  But which one do you use for the best search results?

The first and most important point to remember is how many people use a search engine at a given moment in time.  It has been estimated that 64.5% of all internet searches are done via Google, 12.8% by Yahoo and 19.8% by Bing.

That is not the only thing you are considering, while Yahoo and Bing have lagged behind in developing tools that are helpful to internet searches, Google has developed algorithms that work fantastically to enable searches with ease. For instance, panda and penguin enable web content to be accessed in their original and most practical forms. Simply put, Bing and Yahoo algorithms cannot compare to Googles’.

Content is a major player in all internet searches. That is why it is crucial to engage a search engine that will provide you will as much content as is possible. That is what probably has put Google in the lead. Because many users prefer to use Google allied websites, most relevant content is found on Google.

If you are looking to have a SEO that will have an impact, it is best to use the most powerful tool. You will be looking at high quality assurance, a wide customer outreach, searches that are most relevant to your product and endless links to social network tools to promote your website.

Secrets to successful local Search Engine Optimization.

You are probably stuck in the nightmare of trying all you can on the net to sell your product or service and simply cannot seem to get anywhere. Stick around, we will tell you how to successfully improve traffic to your site, using the right methods applicable to your local audience. These are best secrets of local SEO strategies. Read them and apply these tricks to improve your local search results!

1. Mobile friendly website

Mobile devices have become the home of all searches reaching far and wide. Reaching people on the go and people who are not able to access desktops easily. That is why your website must be mobile friendly. While the internet is great for you, you will be doing yourself a disservice if you cannot reach the entire market. Ensure you set up a mobile site that can be accessed even by the remotest of devices. That way, you are assured to reach a larger audience. In addition, ensure the mobile site is client friendly, meaning they can access your services by the click of a button. Your local audience is using their mobile devices to access the internet more than you anticipated. Be certain that your website is optimized well to be displayed on mobile devices.

2. HTTPS/SSL

HTTPS and SSL are security certificates for your website. Identity theft, credit card hacking and such security issues are not to be taken lightly. If you are going to have a secure website, you must have these kinds of security measures. They ensure that client’s data can be encrypted to be read only by the people it is intended for. If your website does not have any of these security measures, you are putting your clients’ data at risk and risk losing traffic out of this oversight. Note: Clients can easily check if your website has such certificates long before they start doing business with you. Inform clients that they are safe and telling them the encryption certificates you use.

3. In-depth articles

Invest in well written articles. Well researched, detailed and informed articles attract traffic to your website. This is because people keep counter-checking information. The articles you put up on your website must be factual and informative. Shallow researched articles ignite doubt, skepticism and disblief, eventually costing you your clients. For that matter, articles that are written in an easy to understand language are preferred to articles that require dictionaries to understand. Make them easy to understand and factual. If you are writing DYI articles, ensure the things you are describing are locally available to your clients, if not, instruct how they can get them easily by giving addresses or names of stores where they can get them.

4. Exact-Match Domain

Exact- match Domains refer to domains or websites that have similar titles to the words that may be searched by an interested party. For instance, if you are selling cars, you may want your website to be cars. How does this work for you? Generally, when people are searching the internet, they have a particular thing in mind. They may be more inclined to enter fewer words at the beginning of their search and carry-on from there. This increases the chances of your domain coming up in the search. Long complicated domain names are generally less and target a lesser audience. It may be considered traditional and outdated, but this is the basic step when it comes to internet searches.

5. Google Places

How do Google places help you? First, it gives details of your business. People easily underestimate the power of Google places. But it is a fact that Google is the largest search engine. So why not make good use of it by allowing them to give your business location, website links, services offered, hours you are available, images etc. Every time people search the internet, Google comes up with suggestions. Google places will suggest nearby business and places for people searching for certain services. Using Google places elevates your options on local searches.

6. Google maps

If you have never considered Google maps as a tool that can help you with your business, you need to think again. Your website needs to incorporate Google maps to enable customers reach you. Think of it as the literal website vehicle that will physically get potential customers to you. Google maps works by giving a person who does not know certain location the actual location of a place they are searching for. People generally hate struggling looking for directions when they can get other options more easily.

7. On site SEO

What does this mean? Simply put it is optimizing your website in a way that will reach and appeal to your local audience. For instance, if you are selling a service or item and wish to reach to your local audience, you may need to refer to it in the most understandable words your audience uses. If it is more popular in slang, then use slang. Use Meta descriptions that are relatable to your locality. The HTML descriptions of the website must be clear, precise and relatable to your local audience. Anything you put on your site must be relatable to your local audience. Also enable tagging and sharing on your website to ensure your local customers, share on their social networks.

8. Local customer review

Have you ever wondered why customer reviews are important for any business? What your local customers say about you will either attract or discourage potential customers. When people go through your reviews, it will determine if you are worth doing business with or not. Your website should have a section where your local clients can leave comments that relate to your product/services. For example, if you offer cab services, have a section on your website where clients can leave comments to encourage others. Positive customer reviews encourage others to buy into your product/or service. In order to get good customer reviews, it is wise to provide good services or products.

9. Social signal

While in the past it may not have seemed possible to draw traffic to your website through social signals, the opposite is true today. Social networking sites are the ultimate places to advertise and have followings The most important thing is you must have a product/service that is appealing to your local customer base. What they post about you will determine what direction your website will take. Also good advertisements that are relatable to your targeted audience will lead people to search for your website. Links and tags on social networking sites enable easy access to your website. How you are able to interact with such networks is very important for you.

10. Google plus

Google plus works.

Google is amazing. Apart from it being the most preferred search engine, you will be surprised to learn that in the year 2014 Google plus ranked as the 3rd most popular social network in the world. It may not seem like it, but you can understand why. Google plus encompasses a whole lot of other social tools, like mail, you-tube, drive, play etc. You can therefore see how it can be a good too to reach people in your locality. How is this accomplished? This is completed by adding contacts and friends on your accounts. This way, people are able to reach further within your networks enabling more people within those networks know about your product/service or access your website.

11. Private Blog Network

PBN (Personal Blog Networks) can be used as an effective SEO strategy for local SEO purposes. With the help of back links from your own network of personal blogs, you can have total control over it. You won’t have to pay or spend excessive money for back links in the form of guest posts, paid posts, etc. It can be a great local SEO strategy for business owners without spending a dime. However, your PBN must not be composed of new domains as new domains on PBN offer zero value. What you must do is find local aged domains with a considerable site authority. Sometimes, aged sites are up for sale at cheap prices. Even expired domains work well as long as they are of good quality and relatively aged. Now that you see how PBN can sky rocket your local SEO strategy, don’t wait any further. Start scouring for cheap expired domains and add them to your PBN to drive traffic to your main website.

Now you know what to do to help your business improve search rankings in Local searches. Apply these local SEO strategies and give wings to your business now!

If you have questions about secrets to local SEO success, please free to call  (631) 259-7714 or email us  david@applepiebusinessconsulting.com, and we will reply within 24-hours or less – Guaranteed (Monday through Friday)