If your business is one that serves the local community rather than the entire US or world, you may wonder if a lot of the money spent on search engine optimization will be wasted.  Not at all!  There are lots of ways to optimize for local search. 

This is mainly accomplished by adding city, state, or neighborhood names to your keywords, for example “Atlanta search engine optimization.”  Another small thing you can do is to add your full address to the footer of your website template so that it appears on every page of your website. 

Adding your listing to Google Maps through the Google Local Business Center is another way to obtain high rankings in local markets.  If you’ve ever done a search and seen a map image with listings to the right of it on the top of the search results, then you’ve seen the impact that Google Maps can have. 

Google has also teamed up with coupon giant ‘ValPak’ to offer localized coupons for those listed in Google Maps. By adding setting up coupons with Google for your customers, your listing to the right of the Google Map will have a link labeled “coupons” below it. 

Localizing search terms can increase your 1^st page visibility

Even if you do serve more than the local market, lots of people may be searching for with local keywords attached.  For very competitive industries and terms, this can greatly increase your number of first page listings.

We are an Atlanta search engine optimization company and although we work with businesses throughout the US and around the world, we also optimize for local search which and hold first page rankings for the terms Atlanta search engine optimization and Atlanta SEO. 

So give it a try - localize!

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There are a lot of urban legends floating around about SEO and effective ways to make a website appear on the first page of the search results.

Understandably, website owners on a tight budget and/or without the time or desire to keep up on SEO often hear these snippets and innocently try to implement strategies that they think will improve their search engine results. Many times, these strategies can result in exactly the opposite effect. This inspired us to put together a list of the 5 worst SEO offenses:

#1: Using automated software to submit your site to hundreds of directories.

You never know for certain which directories automated software will submit your site to. Inbound links from link farms, suspicious sites, and ‘bad neighborhood’ sites can kill you search engine rankings.

#2: Creating keyword stuffed content specifically for search engines.

The goal of a search engine is to put the most relevant content in front of a reader. Sure, search engines look for dominant keywords on a page and throughout a site to evaluate it’s relevance to a search query, but they also know how to identify keyword-stuffed content created specifically to trick the search engines. Content should always be created with the reader in mind and then optimized for search engines.

#3: Linking in from your own sites on the same IP address:

Most people have heard that having lots of inbound links is a way to increase search engine ranking. Either out of naivety or in an effort to trick search engines, many people set up multiple sites specifically for the purpose of linking to their primary site. Search engines are keen to this tactic and have a ways to identify this linking strategy and to disregard those links.

#4: Using text that is the same color as the site’s background (invisible text):

Some people try to stuff keywords onto a page without having to create relevant content by including a list of keywords that is the same color as the background text. This is a trick that search engines became wise to many years ago and is completely ineffective.

#5: Duplicate content:

When building a new site, many people are tempted to copy and paste content from other websites in order to bulk up their own. Copying and pasting copyrighted content is bad news and can kill your search engine strategy, but even those with good intentions who try to use content the legal way by obtaining it from free content site can suffer. Search engines can instantly detect if your page is the same as another. Because they don’t want to show browsers hundreds of instances of the same page of content, your page is likely to get buried while the site that posted the content originally appears in the search results.

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As noted in the previous post, we’ve decided to let potential customers know of our memberships with prominent search engine marketing optimization and interactive marketing organizations in Atlanta, Georgia and the U.S. in general. Choosing a long term business partner is always a tough call – the smarter the choice, the greater the gains.

Atlanta SEM/SEO memberships (PART II):

MarketingPower.com

The AMA’s website, MarketingPower.com, provides marketing professionals and AMA members with the information, products and services required to succeed in their jobs and careers. As a member with MarketingPower.com we’ve made a lot of new and valued contacts. It’s a marketing community that gives members a chance to share their knowledge and to learn from experts and innovators in meetings, workshops, and seminars in Atlanta.

Tagonline.org

Membership in TAG has put us in a good company of like-minded marketers, tech leaders, and industry pioneers. TAG is an unmatched way to network with peers, excel professionally, find a partner or hire an employee, and hone our skills.

Prsageorgia.org

The Georgia Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is the second largest chapter of public relations professionals in the United States with approximately 850 members. It is an organization dedicated to developing and enriching the professional lives of Georgia’s public relations practitioners. We’ve been to many exciting seminars and sessions held by The Georgia Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America where a number of search engine optimization, public relations, and affiliate marketing topics were discussed.

If you are interested in finding out more about our SEO services in Atlanta, please read our Atlanta Internet Marketing article.

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Today we are opening a rubric about internet marketing & SEO organizations in Atlanta, Georgia. With this rubric we seek to educate our potential customers of the ways we work and partner with other online promotion organizations and agencies in Atlanta, Georgia to provide customers top quality SEO. Choosing a long-term business partner is always a tough call – the smarter the choice, the greater the gains.

Atlanta SEM/SEO memberships (PART I):

Atlanta AiMa

Founded in 1999, the AiMA is a dedicated group of new media and interactive marketing professionals focused on providing the Atlanta Internet Marketing Community a place to network, share, and learn about proven leading-edge interactive strategies and tactics. Through AiMA we’re meeting with smart, savvy Atlanta SEO and SEM professionals.

MarketingProfs.com

Founded in June 2000, MarketingProfs.com is an online publishing company based in Los Angeles, California. Even though MarketingProfs are thousands of miles away from Georgia, we’re proud to be a member of the organization that provides marketers with both strategic and tactical marketing know-how and information.

Marketing Profs community unites internet and offline marketing professionals in medium and large corporations who collaborate, share, learn, and network together through a combination of provocative educational events, articles, and commentary.

Creativityatlanta.org

To advance and enrich the expertise in search industry, we’ve joined Atlanta advertising community. Atlanta Ad Club is acting as a catalyst for idea exchange, professional development, and creative energy. Atlanta Ad Club is a local member organization of the American Advertising Federation (www.aaf.org).

If you are interested in reading more about our SEO services in Atlanta, please read our Atlanta Internet Advertising article.

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