10 Reasons Why Your Local SEO Campaign Needs Geo-Targeting

What is Geo-Targeting?

Geo-Targeting is an on-page technique in local search engine optimization (Local SEO), in which a webpage is directed to a specific location – city, town, zip code, state, country and phone number.

Internet marketing gurus claim people will easily find your page in major search engines when it’s optimized for local search.

Does Your Site Need Geo-Targeting?

Yes. There are 10 reasons why a geo-targeted page works well. Here they are:

Reason 1.

Your homepage becomes more visible in search engines. Every page contains a network of keywords and key phrases relevant to your campaign. All these keywords are stored in the title and meta tags.

Reason 2.

Your contact details may regularly appear in the first page. Google Pigeon loves to reward contact pages that contain the following:

• Business name
• Business logo
• Physical address
• Phone number

Reason 3.

It increases conversions because it provides a tool for translation. Your audience can translate the page from English to Spanish with a click.

This way, the more conversions you produce, there are more people who are willing to buy.

Reason 4.

It becomes your ideal landing page. There are times a geo-targeted page looks like a one long letter of sales talk.

The layout displays the product information, opt-in box, success stories, star ratings and local reviews.

This way, more and more people will feel more curious and will click the link towards your main website.

Reason 5.

Your audience will never get confuse. It’s believed an e-commerce site, that is directed to three countries, can display a wide variety of currencies.

Visitors don’t have to use calculators to convert US dollars to Australian and Canadian dollars.

Reason 6.

It contains customized pages that create a satisfying and delightful experience for visitors.

For example, you create “Tour The City” blogs for NYC and New Haven. Their contents, however, provide a different story angle – concerts for NYC and night life for New Haven.

Reason 7.

For testing and comparison purposes, it’s possible to give a different product offers to different locations.

For example, you give 50% discount to NYC and only 40% to New Haven. This way, you can study and run a data-rich and location-based analysis.

Reason 8.

It’s possible to change the site’s overall appearance. Studies reveal every culture interprets bright colors differently.

For example, the US Politics associates blue as a color for liberalism but in China, it’s associated with pornography.

For these reasons, there’s nothing wrong if you’ll use a blue shade for NYC and a light yellow shade for New Haven.

WARNING: This isn’t a recommended technique if your campaign observes a strict brand consistency.

Reason 9.

The page is expected to be mobile friendly due to special codes inserted in the meta script.

Your audience can immediately find your new blog post with only few clicks on his smart phone and other mobile devices.

Reason 10.

Whatever your business is, geo-targeting yields long-term success. Each page stays healthy, SEO-wise. Each page also provides a natural backlink to your main site.

Can you imagine how much traffic you can get when you have 100 geo-targeted pages?

*****

Leads Ahoy provides services in reputation management, search engine optimization, list building and geo-targeted lead generation. http://leadsahoy.com/

10 Internet Marketing Services That Are Illegal

Who would have thought the Internet becomes a powerful way to market products and services? Probably, no one.

Whatever your product is, whatever your service is – you need to create an online presence to embrace more people.

They say internet marketing is easier than offline marketing. They say it’s inexpensive.

For example, you can start by creating a video if you want a promotional campaign. Then, you can circulate the video by embedding it on your website.

You can also invite more bloggers to write something about you and the video.

They say it’s measurable. You can always monitor your analytics. You’ll know who plays your video, what time of the day it gets more clicks and what techniques you can do to increase its visibility.

These days, however, internet marketing gets more complicated due to these illegal methods and practices.

Anything that is done to disobey FTC Internet Marketing Rules, CAN-SPAM Act and Google Guidelines is highly prohibited.

To get things done and crystal clearer, here are the Top 10 internet marketing services you shouldn’t include in your plan. Protect your site from any of the following techniques before it’s too late.

Black Hat SEO

Internet marketing includes search engine optimization. These two are inseparable. Don’t expect you’ll do good in internet marketing without understanding the basics of SEO.

The biggest problem is, hundreds of people want to get smarter than Google. They invent these illegal techniques and unluckily, they have hundreds of followers too.

Buying Email List

Success in internet marketing doesn’t happen overnight but with consistency, you’ll go in the right direction. Therefore, there’s no need to buy a list of email addresses.

Lead generation is the hardest. Building a foundation of trust takes time but you’ll see, it’s worth the wait.

Automated Content

Quality content connects you to your target audience. For this reason, it’s never a smart decision to rely on automation to publish articles on your blog.

You need a content marketing plan or – if you’re too busy, consider hiring a content writer. Search engines love quality blogs, well-written press releases, slide presentations and free e-books.

Free Autoresponder

The techniques in email marketing serve as the juiciest part of internet marketing. It’s where you negotiate and close a deal.

That’s why; use a paid autoresponder in monitoring your campaign. These are more trusted and stress-free.

URL Tweak

There’s no other way to improve search ranking than to perform the legal techniques, on-page and off-page.

If the technique requires you to insert or add something in the url, don’t think twice. It’s illegal.

Unnecessary Display Ads

This isn’t an illegal technique but it’s unnecessary. Display advertising works but it’s unhealthy when you’re losing a lot of money.

That’s why; before relying on ads, stick to your budget. Better ask yourself: How much do I want to spend?

Forum Listing

This is a popular black hat technique used by link builders. What they’re doing is register to hundreds of online forums, even it’s irrelevant to your business, and put the site’s homepage in the signature.

Multi-Level Marketing

Referral marketing is done using word of mouth. You encourage high profile people to mention your products and services in YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.

MLM does the opposite. Its main purpose it to sell, nothing more. People recruit other people in an attempt to create a multiple level of compensation.

Fake Reviews

Registering your site in selected review sites is recommended. More people will trust your products and services if it’s filled with star ratings and good reviews.

Yet, fake reviews are circulated around the web these days. These reviews are mostly done by your competitors. They post negative reviews under fake names to bring you down.

Blog Commenting

Irrelevant and fluff comments make no sense. Oftentimes, these are written for the sole purpose of putting a backlink in the url box.

Internet marketing is about hard work. You don’t simply fool around to earn money. It pays to be patient and it pays to say no to illegal internet marketing services listed above.

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Leads Ahoy provides services in reputation management, search engine optimization, list building and geo-targeted lead generation. http://leadsahoy.com/

The Best SEO Services For Your Website

SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s a technique commonly used in internet marketing.

When your website is well-optimized for search engines, it’s easier for the robots to find your site.

Once SEO is coined with the keyword “service,” it becomes a verb and you’re required to perform it regularly.

“Does my website need SEO?” This is the most common question around the web and the answer is yes.

Whatever your website is – may it be blog, e-commerce, forum, photo gallery or gaming – it’s recommended to find the array of seo services to rank higher in Google, Yahoo and Bing.

“What’s the best SEO service for my website?” That’s the next question and the truthful answer is, It depends.

Each website is unique. Like humans, they have their own needs and it’s up to you how you’ll prioritize these needs.

SEO is divided into two types. The on-page refers to all techniques you do once you sign-in to a website. The off-page refers to all techniques you do outside the website.

These two types help maximize your online visibility. It doesn’t, however, mean you’ll prioritize one type than the other. Your time must be equally divided to manage the two.

For example, you’ll spend the whole day for on-page. The next day, you’re going to perform the off-page techniques.

Listed below are the best search engine optimization services your website needs every day:

1) Organic Search Services

Organic search focuses on ranking your site based on importance and relevance. A well-optimized website follows the guidelines prepared by Google.

Listed below are the on-page services your website needs. These are mostly technical details.

If you think you can’t properly handle it, better hire a webmaster.

• Website theme and layout: How friendly it is?
• Page speed: How fast is it to load?
• Keyword-rich url: Is it easy to remember?
• Proper use of title tags: Is it easy to remember?
• Descriptive meta description: What did you write?
• Placement of keywords in a content
• Format of blog articles: Do you use bullets?
• Sizes of images in each page: Is it too big?
• User experience: How friendly it is?
• Analytics: How often you monitor the number of visits?

2) Local Search Services

According to statistics, more than 80% of online users use key phrases to either find your site or your competitors.

This is the reason why local SEO play a vital role in internet marketing. It focuses on geographic region.

Local SEO combines the use of on-page and off-page techniques. You must make sure your site provides the following:

• verified business name
• complete address
• phone number
• star ratings
• customer reviews

Below are the techniques or better called as the checklist to boost your local online campaign:

( ) Your root url must include a business name and location.

( ) Your page title must include the service and location.

( ) Each page includes your business name, address and phone number.

( ) Target your blog posts to a specific state and city.

( ) Register your site to popular listings.

( ) You put your listing in the right category.

( ) Be consistent with all your listings. The profiles must include the same business name, the same logo, the same address and the same phone number.

( ) Update your social media every day by posting the new blog posts, press releases and free downloads.

( ) Conduct an online seminar once a week. Be an expert in your field and inspire your audience.

( ) Encourage your audience to rate your products and services. Allow them to write honest reviews too.

( ) Positively respond to negative reviews. Instead of being too defensive, let them understand how you can improve.

( ) Constantly ask for citations. For example, request an authority person to tweet about your new blog post.

3) Social Media Services

Social media focuses on off-page techniques. Your goal is to reach out to all the registered members and give them a reason to trust you.

You communicate with your new and existing customers through your social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Below are the essential techniques for an effective social media campaign:

Technique 1.

Be consistent with all your profiles. The primary function of all social networking sites is to attract attention using your visual content.

Therefore, put your logo as your profile picture. Most importantly, your url should be your business name. For example, www (dot) facebook (dot) com /leadsahoy.

Technique 2.

YouTube is the most popular video networking site and it allows you to optimize your channel, create a playlist and subscribe to other channels.

Therefore, make it a habit to upload all your promotional videos in your channel and link them either to your homepage, blog or contact.

Technique 3.

Participate in two forums related to your business. Answer as many threads as you can to earn the members’ trust.

Teach them with what you know. Just make sure your signature includes your homepage.

Technique 4.

Twitter is an ideal networking site for communication and research. So, take time to explore around and learn how to use each feature to your benefit.

Tweet and re-tweet regularly. Include a photo, hashtag and link in a tweet.

Technique 5.

Create a group in Facebook and send invites to all your friends. This group serves as your discussion board in which you encourage to share ideas and ask questions.

Technique 6.

LinkedIn serves as your online resume, which reveals something about your reputation. You’re also allowed to join groups and find new connections.

For this, don’t forget to update your profile. It’s your responsibility to regularly add new skills, new blog post and new announcement.

Technique 7.

Create a presence in other social networking sites such as Google+, Pinterest and Tumblr. Make sure you’ll link all the photos to your homepage.

To know how you’re going to set priorities, answer this simple questionnaire made by MOZ. It’s easy and it’s fast.

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Leads Ahoy provides services in reputation management, search engine optimization, list building and geo-targeted lead generation. http://leadsahoy.com/