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The
Editor's Desk - From Beneath the Clutter
Feature Article - Affordable entertainment for your family
Guest Article - Is Your Website Ready For Local Search Engine Traffic?
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You may have read this in my email to you, but just to make sure I get everyone possible, I want to tell you again to please be on the lookout for my new signup request for this newsletter. I really hate to do this, but as near as I can figure, a virus got hold of my confirmation email address, which has resulted in random people being signed up for this newsletter against their will. I have recieved some rather unpleasant emails on this topic, so rather than continue to even accidentally spam people, I am going to have to ask all of you to sign up again. I have corrected the forms on the website, and you may have already received my request from my new list management company. This is quite a painful move, as I know I will lose many of you, but it is the only solution I can find. My current hosting company has not replied to my email, which is most disappointing.
If for any reason you did not receive my confirmation email and should have, feel free to sign up again using the form at the top of this and all pages of this site. My new list will be going through AWeber, an extremely reputable company. It looks like I'll be able to have my newsletter announcements posted via an RSS feed, so if that's your preference, stay tuned and I'll let you know how it works once I figure it out. I think RSS is a rather promising technology; NO SPAM on it! You only get the information you sign up for. That will be a relief after this mess.
Don't forget, you can contribute your articles or tips anytime for consideration. Just use the contact form.
When you’re trying to save money, it can be hard to find fun things to do as a family. Fortunately, there are many options to keep within your budget.
First let’s go over your free options. Going to the park, lake, beach, etc. are all good options. Lots of fun, good exercise for the entire family and don’t forget the sunscreen. Fly a kite, play tag, push the kids on the swings. Even be a kid yourself and go down that slide. Why not?
Weather not cooperating? Know if your local museums have free days. Also be aware of any free concerts or plays being held in your area.
Ok, now let’s spend some money. Lots more options here for you to consider.
With these tips, it should not be difficult to keep your family entertained even on a tight budget.
Stephanie Foster is the owner of Home with the Kids, a resource that knows that there's more to staying home with your family than just business. Get more ideas for family activities at http://www.homewiththekids.com/family.htm.
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Sharia Law SHOULD be used in Britain, says UK's top judge. in Let's Talk About the Issues - stephfoster, Sat 05-Jul-08 (1 Reply)
Happy 4th of July! in General Chatter - stephfoster, Sat 05-Jul-08 (2 Replies)
Google Has Enough Data To Pull You Out Of A Crowd in General Chatter - stephfoster, Sat 05-Jul-08 (2 Replies)
Snow Being Sold on Ebay in Let's Talk About the Issues - Knight, Sat 05-Jul-08 (5 Replies)
Hussein Executed in Let's Talk About the Issues - snowdog20, Sat 05-Jul-08 (3 Replies)
Copyright 2004 John Jantsch
I suppose the real reason for a local small business to
have a website at all is to provide information for the
local market, generate leads from local shoppers. Up until
now too many small businesses have created websites more
like monuments to their company name. If someone knew the
name of the company, they could probably find the website.
That was good to a point but what about those people who
just know they need what you sell but they don't know
anybody who sells it?
What if, instead, local businesses began to think about their websites more like a listing in a phone directory. What if they began to build and optimize their websites with the primary intent of being found in their hometown as the leader in a category. Someone looking for "Farm Fresh Tuna in Upper Cutbank, Montana" is going to enter just such a search, right?
Google and Yahoo both announced this month their model for tapping into the local search traffic. In other words they are now going to make it easier for web surfers that want to find an accountant in their home town to do so.
Everyone knew they would eventually get around to this very
lucrative market so now more than ever you need to prepare
your website to be found in your town.
More about local search at these sites.
http://www.google.com/lochp - Beta site
http://www.google.com/help/faq_local.html#what FAQ
http://local.yahoo.com/u_s__states - yahoo local
What I'm talking about today is "local" search engine optimization. In one sense the principles are the same as everyday regular search engine optimization but the way of thinking about them is a bit different.
~~~~~~
gEEk Term definition: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is
the science of making sure web pages are "designed" in such
a way that search engines can find, index, and rank them
according to the value of their content. For those of you
who don't know, there is an entire industry built around
this science.
~~~~~~
In the old day the mindset was to create a website and optimize it for anyone looking for a certain topic.
Local SEO focuses first on being found in your town....for a certain topic. Geo targeting is the key. When someone is looking for a veterinarian, they don't search locally (at the moment) for the name of your firm. Think in terms of a Yellow Pages directory. They go to city they are looking for and then the category and then the name of the firm to call.
Local search is structured much the same. People who are looking for an auto mechanic online will search "Kansas City Auto mechanic" In order to win the local search game you must be able to win that type of search.
There are no hard and fast rules and even if there were they would change but here are some things you need to begin to think about to bury your competition in the local search game.
Title tags - Probably one of the most important info on your page anyway so make sure your title reads something like "YOURFIRMNAME Kansas City's oldest bakery.
H1 tags - Make sure that your keywords for your site and your geography have H1 tags - The Best Baked Brioche in Peoria, Il.
Content - Add your address and phone number early and prominently (not a bad thing for every page really).
Meta tags - Opinions vary on the usefulness of these but
there are some tags that may gain usefulness depending on
how the search engines refine their methods.
meta name="zipcode"
content="64105,64113,64112,64110,64106,66207,66208,66210
meta name="city" content="Kansas City"
meta name="state" content="Missouri, Kansas"
meta name="ICBM" content="39.10246, -94.59009
City, State, and Zip code tags are pretty self explanatory
but the ICBM one is a bit out there but kind of cool too.
If you go to the GEOUrl Address Server you can locate the exact latitude and longitude of your business. That's what those two numbers after the ICBM tag are. (Of course I think that is the same system they use to target bombs.)
Linking - Make your internal links local friendly - Instead of "Remodeling Projects" use "Omaha Kitchen Projects"
DMOZ - The Open Directory Project is a directory of sites that are listed by human volunteers. It seems that getting listed here gives you high marks with search engines so you need to do it but make sure that you go for the Regional listings all the way down to your town. It is unlikely (and not very useful) that you will get listed for a broad category, particularly if you don't provide world-wide service. Go for the poodle clipping section of your town and you will have better luck.
Other Directories - Another good reason to get listed in DMOZ for your town is that other local directories like Verizon's Smart Pages and SBC's Yellow Pages rely on these listing as well. By the way, get listed in as many of these phone book type of directories like Smart Pages as you can. Some are free and there is speculation that initially the big search engines will rely on these already built local directories.
There...that should keep you busy
John Jantsch is a marketing consultant based in Kansas
City, Mo. He writes frequently on real world small business
marketing tactics and is the creator of “Duct Tape
Marketing” a turn-key small business marketing system.
Check out his blog at http://www.DuctTapeMarketing.com/weblog.php
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