Search engine results can be filtered by region or location. Search engines can display these results based on the searcher’s location or search phrases that include location. Local search results can include more than just your site or your blog entries, they can also display maps, reviews, driving directions, pictures, related sites and more.

There are on-site and off-site factors each business needs to think about.

On-Site

You want your business to do well in your local markets so you need to optimize for those markets on your website. This means you need to include your location and other cities you serve throughout your web site. You also need to include your phone and address. There are ways to optimize well and ways to get your site penalized. Although you need to optimize for location(s), you need to also remember that the content needs to sell your company and create trust. Having “Sarasota”, “Denton” or “Naples” on your pages 40 times will not create trust.

Off-Site

Every business needs to be concerned with off-site local search. Adding your site to Google maps is a good example, but it isn’t so simple anymore. There are ways to enhance your listing and get as much as you can out of that listing. I good SEO company can help you with that.

Some other places you can add your site and business info to are:

• Verizon SuperPages
• Yahoo
• Bing
• Ask Local
• Local.com

Our Local Search Class:

On 10-08-09 SEO Aware will be giving a one hour class on “Local Search” and we will be showing how to make off-site Local Search work for you. Learn more about our Local Search Class.

Well, to begin to understand what your meta keywords are you need to first look at your source page or any source page. (to view a source page you can either right click on a page and click “View Source” or you can go to “View” at the top of your screen and click on “Source”; a notepad page will pop up- some blogs do not have the defined areas I want you to see).

At the top of your (or a) source page you will see 3 very important areas that the search engine spiders or bots look at closely:

1. Title-tag
2. Meta Description
3. Meta Keywords

To effectively optimize your site you need to choose 2-3 keywords/keyword phrases to focus on per page, max. These keywords/keyword phrases should be in your title-tag, meta description and also your meta keywords list. However, other words can (and often should) also be included in your keyword list.

For example, on my main business site I have included several words in my keyword list that are related to the main keyword phrases I am focusing on in my content. I have also used many of these additional words in my meta description. So, when the search engines view my source page they see that the words I have included in my keyword list are used in my content (copy), my title-tag, my meta description my anchor text, and my headlines (bolded text that basically describes what the upcoming paragraph is about).

Basically, all the keywords and supporting keywords are being used effectively and they are placed in the areas the search engines want to see them in. I use my town, Sarasota, as a keyword. I would love to include Tampa as a keyword, but that specific word is used nowhere on that page. Therefore, I shouldn’t and do not use it as a keyword.

Do not place words in your keyword list that are not used in the content/copy, title-tag, meta description , anchor text and/or headlines/sub-headlines. So that is a brief rundown of what your meta keywords are. Good luck with your optimization!

SERP stands for Search Engine Results Page. When you enter a query into a search engine you receive a page with results and this is called a SERP.

An alt-tag is the alternative text that is connected to a picture/graphic on a web page. This tag is exposed when someone rolls their mouse over the picture/graphic or they provide text when a photo cannot be displayed. The alt-tag should do two things:

• Express what the picture is about
• Contain a keyword/keyword phrase (no stuffing!)

Alt Tags can:

• Give a destination of a hyperlinked image
• Help people with various disabilities
• Give important information to people that  turn graphics off and those who can only surf the Web with text-only browsers
• Help people find the destination they need when viewing a site over a slow connection. The text can allow visitors to make navigation choices before graphics are displayed

When spiders scan your web site they are looking at the source page, so they are not going to see the pictures on your site, but they can see what you name the pictures.
If your site is about Sarasota lawn care services and you have a picture of your logo you do not want to label that photo “our logo”. You want to name it “Sarasota lawn care services”. The search engines are looking at the coding on your source page and the keywords within the coding. Naming your images a keyword phrase helps your optimization because it gives you another opportunity to support your optimization strategy.

A meta description basically describes what a web page is about (a web page, not a web site). You can view meta descriptions by looking at the source page. Every page has 3 basic areas that are important for optimization:

1. Title-tag
2. Meta Description
3. Meta Keywords

This means you have to create these for every page and every page needs to be different/customized/optimized. So for example, say you have a page about Batman and Robin. You do not want to have Superman and Wonder Woman in the description of this page. Every description should only include information that is included on that specific page. A possible description could be:

SuperHeroFansGalore.com discusses Batman, Robin, the Bat Mobile, the gadgets used by Batman, Batgirl, the butler guy and the various girlfriends Batman had.

You SHOULD NOT create a description about your entire site and have this description on every page…that is a big no no! You need to look at the keywords for each page (Batman, Robin, Batgirl, Bat Mobile) and include these words in your title-tag, meta keywords, meta description and then the content of that page. Oh and don’t forget about Anchor Text.

The search engines (especially Google) will come in and look at the title-tag, meta keywords, meta description and then the content on each page. You want the specific keywords of each page to be in each of the these areas. These areas are based on the content of the specific page only, not the entire site.

The biggest mistake I see on the web is the same title-tag, meta keywords & meta description on every page! Please don’t do this.

More on Keywords…

M. Fach – Sarasota SEO

To view your source page, or mine, you can either right click on a page and click “View Source” or you can go to “View” at the top of your screen and click on “Source” and a notepad page will will pop up. This is a source page and this is the only page the search engines are interested in.

You can have the most beautiful site in the world, but the search engines do not really care. The search engines (really the search engine spiders/bots/algorithms) look at the source page to see what you have optimized, how you have optimized and if you have optimized ethically (you can get kicked off of Google for a number of unethical things). Beauty does not matter; a properly coded and optimized site is what they are interested in.

So you know what a source page is. I know the explanation was thrilling…

M. Fach

First let me say that people use the terms “Title-tag” and “Page-Title” to explain the same area.

The title-tag is at the very top of your computer screen. Unless you have changed your settings the bar should be blue. If you look at the top of this screen you will see that my title-tag says “What is a Title-Tag? | What is a Title Tag? | What is a Page Title? | SEO Blog SEO Aware”

Title-tags are talked about so often because it is a crucial area, and perhaps the most important area, to optimize. When the search engines come to your website they look at the title-tag first. They look at the keywords and see if these keywords are in the meta-keywords, meta-description and in your content. These are the four main areas that need to be optimized and these are the four areas the search engines want to see your keywords/keyword phrases in. .

Edit- 5-23-07 Articles I have found:

http://www.highrankings.com/allabouttitles.htm

———————————————

• What are Meta Keywords? What is a Keyword List?

• What does SERP Mean?

• What is An Alt-tag?

• What is a Meta Description?

• What is a Source Page?

Anchor text is the visible text of a hyperlink (Link that is underlined). Anchor text is basically the text or words used to describe the link. A hyperlink may go to another site, another place on the same page, another page on the same site and it may open up a document for you to view. For example, you can visit “my web site” (this is labeled wrong- will explain later)…

Relevance

Keywords need to be used in anchor text to increase the relevance of the target page relating to the keywords used. For example, I have a link on my home page- SEO Copywriting. The search engines (especially Google) are going to look at the text of the link and then go to the page and see if the text relates to the page the link leads to. If they go to my SEO Copywriting page they will see a lot of information about SEO Copywriting- as you can see the anchor text is relevant to the page.

Search Engine Optimization

Including keywords in your anchor text you will increase your chances of a higher ranking with the search engines. Google pays close attention to the words used in the hyperlink (Anchor Text). If you use keywords or keyword phrases in your anchor text Google’s algorithms will pick up on it and if they determine that the link description is relevant to the page or document the link leads to, your ranking can increase. It is important to try and label your links effectively for optimization purposes.

Saying “Click Here” will not help you. Remember up above when you saw “my web site” and I said the link was labeled wrong? Well, if you click on the link you will see my web site, but Google will not consider the words used to describe the link as relevant.

You will not find the phrase “my web site” on that web site. Therefore it is not relevant. Just remember that you are basically describing the link using keywords that are relevant and can help you with optimization.

For More Information You Can Visit:

Wiki

Keyword Density is the number of times a Keyword or Keyword Phrase is used in proportion to the other words on the webpage. Keyword Density is a ratio and is almost always expressed in percentages, such as 2.5% or 10%. Basically, the more times a keyword appears the higher the density.

Although you want to include a keyword phrase, or search phrase, often you cannot use it too often. For example, if I included the phrase “Search Engine Optimization” 22 times in this blog entry Google would consider it spamming. If you are caught spamming or keyword stuffing your site could be penalized or dissappear from Google completely. These unethical practices will not only upset Google, it will also irritate potential clients/customers. If the content of your site is filled with junkie writing you will look unprofessional and untrustworthy.

Hiring an SEO Copywriter that understands how to properly integrate keywords into your site is always an easy option.