LOC@L SEO GUIDE

The Hitwise Intelligence blog is a great example of how a corporation can use proprietary info to attract customers.  I just saw this post by Robin Goad on the growing popularity of “opening times” searches, particularly around holidays, in the UK.
Last week the three fastest moving search terms for retailers were ‘tesco opening times’, ‘tesco [...]

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Sometimes this job can lead you down strange rabbit holes.
The blog just got a referral from Google for this search.
The following ad showed up on the right side of the SERP and caught my eye (how could it not?)

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The CPC for the keyword “iphone” in the UK is 15 times more expensive than it is in the US.  “smartphone” is 13 times more expensive.
Check them out at www.spyfu.com and their newly launched www.spyfu.com/uk.

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My post on Keyword Potential™ generated some great responses and some questions.  I was surprised by the number of emails I have received about Keyword Volume so I thought I’d spend a little bit more time on it.
Keyword Volume is defined as the number of phrases that generate search engine referrals for you over a [...]

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As I mentioned in my post on how to improve page 2 rankings, boosting the performance of keywords you already get traffic for can have a great ROI.  But how do you see beyond analytics data overload to figure out which keywords have the most potential?  Here’s one way to do it:

First group your referring [...]

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I just got some referrals from Google for the following search “dentists in pleasanton who use nitrous oxide”.
If you have a dental website I strongly advise you adding the term “nitrous oxide” to your pages, and any other narcotic you use. You may be able to snare some potential customers who enjoy a good buzz.

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If you have ever wondered why you should hire a SEO expert instead of doing it yourself, check out Jill Whalen’s two informative how-to pieces on the basics of keyword research. If you read the articles you will get an idea of how much time and grunt-work is involved. None of it is rocket science, [...]

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It’s almost Christmas Eve, the kids are in bed and I bet a lot of you are getting ready for that final stretch of gift wrapping. Maybe this year instead of doing a botch job you’ll do a search on Google for “How To Wrap A Present“. The strange thing is nobody [...]

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This holiday season how about giving the gift of SEO?
Why not link to your favorite cause with targeted keywords in the anchor text? It’s the gift that keeps on giving, and of course it looks great under the tree.
Here’s my list Google Santa:

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Here’s a quick one: Per my post on Black Monday sales here’s yet another reminder to use keywords on your site that focus on seasonal events.
A few weeks ago I posted about Matt Booth’s 2008 Predictions for the Yellow Pages. Now I am on page one of Google for searches for “2008 Predictions“. [...]

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The long tail of search concept is a pretty crazy one when you see it play out in reality. Here are some of the search terms that people have used to find my site in Google:
“ads with old people”
“advantage of working for google”
“blocking yelp”
“can you see the real me”
“chamath”
“cloud information”
“dental nitrous oxide reaction on [...]

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A lot of you have been asking for a copy of the presentation I gave at last week’s Interactive Local Media conference. The subject was how to use keyword research and site architecture to help a site rank for variations of searches for service categories in a particular city.The challenge most local search sites [...]

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What follows are my perceptions and/or misperceptions of the panel on local search ad targeting at the Kelsey ILM Conference:
Panelists:
Court Cunningham, CEO, Yodle
Brad Geddes, LocalLaunch
Simon Heseltine, Serengeti Communications
Jon Kelly, SureHits
Dorab Patel, Matchcraft

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There have been trillions of words written about how valuable it is for search engine optimization to get links back to your site from relevant sites with targeted keywords in the text of those links. So why even bother adding more noise to the conversation? Because I saw something happen the other day that underscores [...]

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Here’s a way to get your fair share of traffic from Google and then some.
You may have noticed that Google serves up 3 local listings in its Web search results (results you get from searching via the Google.com home page among others) if G thinks you are searching for a yellow pages-like search. For example, [...]

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