In some ways, it’s easier because there is naturally less competition for keywords that are location specific. On the other hand, SEO for local businesses is a harder task because there are so many local areas to optimize for. You could optimize for the community you are in (“West Hills”, in my case), or the area (“San Fernando Valley”) or the City (“Los Angeles”) or the part of the state (“Southern California”) or even the state itself (“California”).

And on top of that, you’ve got all the adjacent areas you also want to draw business from.

So, as you can see, SEO for local businesses can be a very time consuming task.

A Local SEO Success Story

SEO success stories are fun, especially when you have a lot of them to tell. I’ve got lots, but I haven’t documented them at all. But when I got this very brief one-word email from my client Spencer at Evolutionate.com, I figured I had to write it down, just so you could see what is possible for you and your business, too.

First, a little background.

I developed the Evolutionate website this past summer, so about 6 months ago. I design all of my websites with search engine optimizations “built-in.” Almost from the start, Evolutionate.com ranked high for some very competetive keywords, in particular “convert your iphone app to android“, which is a big part of Evolutionate’s business. (They develop iPhone and Android apps, and rewriting them for one or the other platform is profitable for them.)

If you Googled that term starting in August, you would have seen Evolutionate.com at #7, and it stayed there for a long time. Today, they rank #1 for that term. But…that is NOT the topic of this message.

However, there is a more general part of their business that they also want traffic for, and that is simply to develop new iPhone apps. But there’s a twist. You see, Spencer doesn’t want to compete with overseas iPhone app development companies. He specifically wants people who are looking for people who want a US-based developer.

And more specifically, people who want to work with someone in California, Southern California, or even Los Angeles.

One other bit of background: I installed a piece of software on Spencer’s website that emails us whenever someone goes to Google, searches for a keyword, and ends up on Evolutionate.com as a result of that search. The email contains the search term, the page the user ended up on, and the rank on Google where that link was found.

So last night Spencer emails me and says “Stop it! I get too many emails for all the hits on my site!” Well, that’s a nice problem to have.

But before I had a chance to do what he asked and respond to his email, he wrote me again, with a single word email, that said: “Wow!!!”.

Southern California iPhone App Developers, Ranks #1

His email was actually a reply to one of the Rank Tracker emails that said that he now rankes #1 for “southern california iphine developer”. Okay, that’s a typo, so I checked it out. It’s true. He rankes #1 for that.

But what about the term without the mis-spellings? Turns out he’s #1 for that, too. AND #2. Take a look at the screen shot to see it (Todays date is 12/12/11).

And he’s #1 for the same term in the singular (“developer” instead of “developers”)

We’re still working on “Los Angeles iPhone App Developers, but we’re up to page 2 and still rising. Keep in mind, though, that Evolutionate still gets dozens of hits to their site every day for keywords that make them money. Most of them on page 1, some on page 2, and many which we didn’t even optimize for — let’s call these “bonus listings” rank high as well.

So what is the lesson in all of this?

SEO for local businesses is entirely possible for you regardless of your business. Spencer’s business is inherently nationwide, but by focusing on a specific area, he can get traffic that he would have otherwise missed.

A lot of people think of SEO as a black art. They’ve paid other people to help them rank high and never had any success, or they just are naturally suspicious of anyone who tells them a story. I don’t blame them. There are a lot of snake oil salesmen selling “automatic” methods for ranking that just don’t work. They’ll promise you high rankings, take your money, say Thank You, and never perform.

I meet a lot of small business owners like this. It takes some time to help them to trust someone — anyone — again. What I’ve found is that the easiest way to help someone understand what is possible with SEO for local businesses is proof.

And that’s why I’ve told you this story.

And that’s also why I’ll be telling you more SEO Success Stories over the coming weeks and months, both some that happened in the past, and others that are soon to come.

What You Can Do To Help Your Own Business

If you own a local business, YOUR WEBSITE can also rank high for keywords that make you money. Got questions about SEO for local businesses?

Call me. Or sign up now for my 7 Secrets For Local Website Success (top right corner of this page). In that series of emails, I pull back the curtain to tell you not only what to do, but how I do what I do to help small businesses like you get more business from the internet. And that includes how to rank high for keywords that make you money.

I think that understanding SEO for local businesses will help you use it more effectively in your own business.

Cyber Monday

“Cyber Monday,” says Sarah DiGiacomo, daughter of shop owner Michael DiGiacomo, “seemed like the perfect date to officially launch our new site. Every year, thousands of people across Los Angeles, Ventura County, and the San Fernando Valley, prepare their homes for Holiday guests, family and friends. They want their homes to look their best, and they look to Off The Bolt Fabrics to help them do that.”

“Having our new site launched in time to help our customers find the perfect fabric, or plan their new re-upholstery project in time for

The new OTBfabrics.com was developed by West Hills Web.

their Christmas and New Years guests, was important to us,” continued Sarah.

The facility also is the home of DiGiacomo Upholstery, known to be among the oldest (over 50 years) and most trusted high-quality upholstery shops in Los Angeles. Each new re-upholstery project is supervised by owner Michael DiGiacomo himself, with over 20 years of upholstery experience, and thousands of satisfied customers.

Building A New Website During A Bad Economy?

When asked whether the poor economy is really the right time to build a new state-of-the-art website, Sarah DiGiacomo replied “During tough times, most local retailers cut their marketing in order to save on expenses. But we believe that this is exactly the right time to spend more on marketing.” She continued, “As other stores advertise less, promote less and spend less, we’ll invest more in our store and in serving our customers both online and in our store, and as a result, we will end up serving far more people than ever before.”

And it turns out that reupholstering existing furniture is also very smart during these difficult economic times. A typical 6 foot sofa can be reupholstered for about half the cost of buying a brand new sofa of similar quality. Similarly, dining room chairs and other fabric-covered furniture could cost two to three times as much to buy new compared to repair and re-upholstery.

New customers can now not only find information about the thousands of fabrics on the new website, but they can also download an online fabric coupon for anything in the store. “We’re celebrating our new website with a coupon for 10% off EVERYTHING in the store,” says Michael DiGiacomo. “And that includes Upholstery Labor, too!”

Online Coupons Via A New Email Marketing System

The DiGiacomo’s new website is also configured with a new email marketing system that will instantly deliver the online coupons, and allow Off The Bolt to keep in contact with their best customers and potential new customers as well.

The whole system — including the website, coupons, and email marketing system — was designed, built and configured by West Hills Web, a leading authority in websites for local businesses. “West Hills Web and its owner Mark Widawer were recommended to us by a wholesale client of ours. Mark had just finished their website, and we loved what we saw — not only how the site looked, but how the site was designed to automate and track all of the company’s marketing,” said Sarah.

Michael continued, “We had been misled and frustrated by previous web designers, but after talking with Mark, we knew that he and West Hills Web were the right choices for our new site.”

New Traffic From High Search Engine Rankings

And it turns out they were correct. In the short time since the pre-launch of the new fabric store website, traffic has increased significantly, and the site already ranks on Page One of Google in and around Los Angeles for keyword terms that buyers use, such as “Woodland Hills Upholstery Fabric” (#1 on Google), “Upholstery shop in San Fernando Valley” (#3 on Google) and “San Fernando Valley Fabric Store” (#1 on Google).

West Hills Web specializes in the development of websites for local businesses, and is the developer of the new Off The Bolt website. West Hills Web is located in nearby West Hills, CA. Owner Mark Widawer offers a local online marketing course called “7 Secrets For Local Website Success,” on his website at www.WestHillsWeb.com. You can contact Mark Widawer via email at media@WestHillsWeb.com, or by phone at 818-592-6370.

Off The Bolt Fabrics is the San Fernando Valley’s largest retail upholstery fabric shop, located at 6445 De Soto Ave. in Woodland Hills, (San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles County) California. DiGiacomo Upholstery, one of Southern California’s most trusted high quality upholstery shops, is located within the huge warehouse. You can reach Sarah and Michael at Off The Bolt Fabrics and DiGiacomo Upholstery by phone at 818-999-0441.

Thunderbird is an open source (free) email client made by the same people who made Firefox. You can download a free copy of Thunderbird for either Mac or PC here. You’ll notice it is a lot like Outlook, but faster and more stable. Thunderbird also lacks the calendar and some other features of Outlook, but there are many developers who make special Thunderbird Add-Ons to give you the same functionality.

Setting up your Thunderbird email client for Thunderbird (or any other email app, for that matter) is pretty easy. It’s a lot like setting up email for any other kind of email account, except that Google has its own server names. Oh, and they use a high security SSL (secure) mail connection, rather than the usual unencrypted ones.

Did that make sense to you? Well, no matter. Here are the basic settings.

What you’ll need to know to begin are:

• Your email address — the whole thing including your domain name. That could be something like yourname@yoursite.com.
• Your password — You should have this. But if you don’t, then try logging into your Google Apps account via the webmail, and ask the system to reset the password for you.

Once you have that info, here are the settings you need to know.

Incoming Server Settings For Google Apps Email

• Incoming Mail (IMAP) Server: imap.gmail.com
• Use SSL: Yes
• Port: 993

Outgoing Server Settings For Google Apps Email

• Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server: smtp.gmail.com
• Use Authentication: Yes
• Use STARTTLS: Yes (some clients call this SSL)
• Port: 465 or 587

Now that you have the settings, how about a video to show you step by step how to set up your Google Apps Account in Outlook? I’ve made you a video here.

Video: How to set up Thunderbird for Google Apps Email

And, if you need any further clarification, or prefer to see step by step instructions, Google has a very good step by step page for setting up Google Apps Email in Outlook here:

Google Apps Setup for Thunderbird 3

And, you can also see their list of all of the email clients — including the iPhone and iPad, here:

Google Apps Setup for iPhone, iPod, iPad, and almost any email client.

Still have a question? Leave a comment below and I will answer it for you.

-Mark

Setting up your Outlook email client (or any other email app, for that matter) is pretty easy. It’s a lot like setting up email for any other kind of email account, except that Google has its own server names. Oh, and they use a high security SSL (secure) mail connection, rather than the usual unencrypted ones.

Did that make sense to you? Well, no matter. Here are the basic settings.

What you’ll need to know to begin are:

• Your email address — the whole thing including your domain name. That could be something like yourname@yoursite.com.
• Your password — You should have this. But if you don’t, then try logging into your Google Apps account via the webmail, and ask the system to reset the password for you.

Once you have that info, here are the settings you need to know.

Incoming Server Settings For Google Apps Email

• Incoming Mail (IMAP) Server:     imap.gmail.com
• Use SSL: Yes
• Port: 993

Outgoing Server Settings For Google Apps Email

• Outgoing Mail (SMTP) Server:     smtp.gmail.com
• Use Authentication: Yes
• Use STARTTLS: Yes (some clients call this SSL)
• Port: 465 or 587

Now that you have the settings, how about a video to show you step by step how to set up your Google Apps Account in Outlook? I’ve made you a video here.

Video: How to set up Outlook for Google Apps Email

And, if you need any further clarification, or prefer to see step by step instructions, Google has a very good step by step page for setting up Google Apps Email in Outlook here:

Google Apps Setup for Outlook 2003

Google Apps Setup for Outlook 2007

And, you can also see their list of all of the email clients — including the iPhone and iPad, here:

Google Apps Setup for iPhone, iPod, iPad, and almost any email client.

Still have a question? Leave a comment below and I will answer it for you.

-Mark

Lucky you. I use it too. (Here’s why I use Google Apps for Email).

So now you need to know how to set it up. Here’s how to do that.

Before we get started, though, let me explain a few things. Google is acting as your email server. That means that you will typically use some program (like Outlook or Thunderbird) to actually fetch, read, and send your email. So, you’ll see the instructions for how to set those up in the videos below.

On the other hand, you might just want to log in directly to a page on your browser to get your mail. That’s fine, too. And, if you follow my advice here, you’ll set it all up using something called IMAP, which means that all of the mail you receive will be synchronized.

That means when you read mail on your iPad it matches the mail on the browser which also matches the mail on Outlook. Neat, right?

To Log Into Google Apps Email in a Browser

It’s easy…

Just go to http://www.Google.com/a/yourdomainname.com

Of course, switch “yourdomainname.com” with your real domain name and extension.

If we’ve set up your Google apps for you, we’ve done something simpler, though. You can get to your mail just by going to your website and adding /mail to the end, like this.

http://www.YourDomainName.com/mail

(I don’t have to tell you again to substitute your own real domain into that, do I?)

Once there, just type your username and password. You should not type in your whole email address, just your username. So if your address is “joe@joescompany.com”, then just log in with “joe”.

And that’s it.

Once inside, it should all be pretty clear for you. If you don’t see your email on the very next screen, click the “Inbox” link at the top right of the screen.

That’s it for now…unless you want to know about…

How to set up Google Apps Email in Thunderbird

How to set up Google Apps Email in Outlook

Well, that’s only partially true.

While Gmail does a great job with eliminating spam, organizing your mail, integrating with your calendar and contacts, and delivering your email reliably, it just doesn’t look right to have a Gmail address for your business.

That’s one of the reasons why Google has created “Google Apps“.

Basically, Google Apps becomes your entire email server for your business. With Google Apps, you can use IMAP email and have all of your email syncrhonized on all of your devices — your Outlook, your iPhone, your iPad, your Android Phone…and even on any computer on the internet you want to use to check your email.

Not only that, you also can share calendars among all the members of your company. You can make appointments for each other right on your calendars, collaborate on projects together, store documents and share files.

And if you’ve got 10 users or less, it’s all free.

Of course, it takes a little bit of work to set it up at the start, but once it’s set up, you’re good to go.

Oh, and let’s not forget why they call it “Google Apps”.

It’s because there are hundreds (if not thousands by now) of other companies that are making applications that run in the Google Apps environment. There are CRM apps, Accounting apps, collaboration apps, productivity apps…just about anything you can think of.

And lots of them are free.

Weird, right?

Well, not for Google. And if you’ve got more than 10 users, they do charge for the service.

Let me say this, though…

The email server that comes with most basic hosting accounts is pretty much crap. It doesn’t filter spam, and isn’t up all the time. Google, on the other hand, is serving a few hundred million people. It’s rock solid, and they kill spam like nothing else I’ve ever seen.

And that’s why I use it.

You should, too.

–Mark

p.s. If we’ve already set up Google Apps for a site we’ve developed for you, and are looking for settings, then go to the Google Apps Email Settings page and watch the videos there to see how to set up your email.

Here’s a more troubling question: How would you know, either way???

So let me give you a little background, and within about 3 minutes, you’ll know the answer to both questions.

For you to have a website for your local business, you basically need three major pieces:

• The website itself — Your website is the content, whether text, graphics, video, or audio that makes up your website. It’s usually a result of the work that your web developer did for you.
• Website Hosting — All of that content needs to be on a computer somewhere, and that computer has to be connected to the Internet. That computer is called a “web server”…and someone (or some company) owns the web server.
• Domain Name — Separate from your website content, and separate from the computer, is the name of that website. Names are bought (actually, they are leased) from companies called “Registrars”. You typically buy your domain name for one or more years at a time.

Now…

There are three ways that someone can hold you and your website hostage. The first is if someone else actually owns your domain name. I’ve seen this many times — most recently with our local elementary school PTA. Some volunteer who was working on the site for the PTA actually bought the domain name in her own name.

So when the PTA itself wanted to make some important decisions about their website, they couldn’t do it…because the domain name itself was held captive by this ”volunteer.”

Another way for your website to be held hostage is if your web developer (or someone else) is the only person who knows your login information for your hosting account. If you can’t log into your web host, you typically can’t update your website.

I once was asked to rebuild a site for a youth organization in support of the arts. The site’s former developer wouldn’t give the site’s owner the login information to their hosting company, and that prevented them from hiring me (or anyone else) from downloading their website so they could rebuild it elsewhere.

Months of time were lost while we waited for the client to treat the former developer with kid gloves so that he would eventually give them the old website content.

The third way your site can be held hostage is really a technological issue. It used to be that websites were built using HTML. Now, HTML is still the “language” of the Web, but you no longer need to know how to use HTML (or even how to spell it) in order to make a site.

What you need these days is something called a “content management system” (CMS) that allows you (as the site owner) or me (or any up-to-date web developer) to log in and add or change content.

You can add text, photos, drawings, audios and even videos in just minutes, which is something that used to either be impossible, or used to take hours or days to accomplish. These days, even YOU can update your own website.

So how can you avoid having your website held hostage by anybody? You need just three things.

1. Make sure YOU own your own domain name and have the username and password for your account.
2. Make sure YOU own your own hosting account and have the username and password for your account.
3. Make sure YOUR SITE is built on a Content Management System (like WordPress). Your Wordpress CMS will have its own username and password, so make sure you have those, too.

But what do you do IF YOU ARE BEING HELD HOSTAGE? That’s easy.

Call me. I can help you get free from whatever’s limiting you. 818-592-6370 x701.

To Your Success,

–Mark Widawer

Do you own a local business? If you do, then you probably already know that websites for local businesses need to be different than, say, Amazon.com or Facebook. But what are those differences, and why do they matter to you?

1) Websites for Local Businesses are more personality-driven

Your local business website is your opportunity to be just a little bit famous, and frankly it’s high time that you were.

You provide a good service or a quality product. You care about your customers. You always do a good job. You know your stuff, and you know that anyone who doesn’t hire you or buy from you is frankly going to miss out on getting his problem solved or his real needs fulfilled.

You know your customers and your customers know you. You ought to have a website that introduces the two of you to each other.

2) Search Engines Love Local Websites

There are two parts of the internet that are growing extremely fast — Mobile and Local search. As a local business, you have an opportunity to snag customers right from the internet when they search for what you do or sell.

Google, Yahoo and Bing are working extremely hard to be the most important resource to people searching for local businesses. And they’ve got competition from sites like Citysearch.com, Yelp.com and YP.com — just a few of the sites that concentrate on local businesses.

What’s the upshot of all of this local competition? With a well designed website, optimized for local search, your site will be found more often than if you were competing on a national scale.

3) Websites for Local Business are Referral-Driven

You want your website to attract brand new, fresh customers right from the web, but your business also grows by referrals. Having a website that supports and encourages referrals from your current and previous customers can help your business grow even faster.

Here’s the bottom line…

A well-built website for a local business has a very specific purpose — to get the customer to pick up the phone or get in their car and make a purchase.

If you don’t already have a website for your local business, then you are definitely missing out on a lot of potential customers — and a lot of money in your pocket. The Internet is going to be around for a long, long time, and its influence on how people buy is only going to increase.

It’s time to finally get your business on the Internet, or bring your site up-to-date from its last revision. Business has changed. The Internet has changed.

Let’s get YOU some new business.

To Your Success,

–Mark Widawer

Well, that’s an excellent question. Unfortunately, it’s far easier to ask than answer.

That’s because the word “website” can mean a lot of different things, just like the word “car” can. Even though both a Toyota and Mercedes will get you across town in about the same amount of time, the Mercedes costs a lot more.

And so does a big dump truck.

Cars are personal things — we buy just what we want and need. And the same holds true for your website. And just as a car can have two doors or four, a 4-cylinder engine or a V-8, and a navigation system or a handy pocket for your Thomas Guide, there are lots of different features we can build into your website, too.

The difference, though, is that we can add just about anything to your website, regardless of where we start.

So, let me ask you:

• What’s the purpose of your website? Is it to attract leads so you can close the deal personally? Or are you selling or renting something directly from your website?
• Want Lead Sales Leads? You probably do, and building a lead generation system into a website is something that we almost always do. Less than 1% of people who visit websites buy something. But if you capture a lead, you greatly increase the chances of them coming back later to buy from you.
• Need a Shopping Cart? Lots of websites are built to just generate leads, some are built to make sales, and others are built to do both. But if you want to sell stuff online, then we’re going to build that into your site for you. There are lots of ways to do that, and a few real great ones that we use that can get you up and running and making sales online in no time.
• Want “Members”? A membership site is a fantastic way to build and create a real online business. Recurring billings can be a wonderful thing for your business, if it fits your business model.
• How large a site do you need? If you’ve got a dozen different services, each with 15 pages of information, then that site is a lot larger than a 10-page lead generator site.
• What do you want your website to say about you? Quick! Look at your current website for a split second, then close your eyes. Without reading one word, what does the site actually “say” to you? What is it’s message? Are you artsy and creative? Are you down-to-business? Does it say “trustworthy” and “reliable”? Do the animated graphics scream out “1997! and “change me!”We’ll build your site to convey the right message to your visitors, so that they know they’re in the right place even before they read a single word.
• Got Written Materials? If you do, and they’re written in a way that we can use or modify them easily for your new site, then we will. In my experience, though, materials written without Search Engines in mind, and without some solid copywriting tactics incorporated into the site, often have to be totally rewritten anyway.
• Do you already have tons of visitors? Whether you do or don’t have existing and continuous website traffic, I’ve yet to meet anyone who says that they don’t want more. That’s why we design each site with the Search Engines in mind– especially Google. And that’s also why we offer and recommend ongoing link building and content-creation services, so that you get to the top of Google and stay there.
• Does your business never, ever change? Some businesses never do change, but others add new services and new products all the time. Sites can be built to make that easy for you to do, or we can do it for you on a continuing basis.

There are, of course, more subtleties to websites than these, but now you have an idea of the kinds of things that can vary the time it takes to develop a website, and the investment you’ll be making in your site.

That said, sites can range from a couple thousand dollars into the tens of thousands of dollars.

But you and I will figure that out.

When we start working together, the first thing we’ll do is decide on all of the features you need. We’ll talk about your own goals with your business, and how your website fits into that. We’ll talk about and leverage your old website and marketing materials as much as we can to bring the costs down and shorten development time, and we’ll work on new materials as much as we can so that we can get done what you need and want.

You’ll get a high quality website that acts as a magnet to the search engines, and a lead conversion machine for your visitors.

If what you want is a website that grows your business, your investment will be well worth it. Let’s talk.

To Your Success,

–Mark Widawer

Well, there’s usually a real good reason for asking that question, and it’s usually something like “My website isn’t making me ANY money, and I know it should!”

What makes it even more agonizing is that you hear that people and companies are making thousands, even millions of dollars from their websites, but for some reason you weren’t invited to that party.

Frustrating, isn’t it?

You can examine your own website and marketing to see how your site matches up, but there’s a good chance that you’ll be blind to most of the problems with your site. In fact, that’s probably why you’re reading this article right now. You’re just too familiar with your site, and probably too invested in its current form.

So let’s get you invited to the “website money party” and figure out what’s wrong with your website.

Get your own “Website Profitability Review” now.

The review is inexpensive, and you’ll discover exactly how to make more money from your website. If you implement any of the changes that I’ll recommend, you’ll earn your investment back in no time. And, 100% of the Review fee is applied to any future work you ask me to do for you to build or update your website. Sound Fair? So ultimately, it can be free to you. Here’s what’s included:

• Target Market Analysis — Who you think your site is built for, and how that differs from who it’s really built for.
• SEO Analysis — How clear and understandable is your website to the search engines? Does Google really know what you’re site is about? I’ll run through my 12-point SEO checklist to find out.
• Lead Capture Analysis — Almost no one buys anything the first time they visit a site. Statistics show that 99% of your visitors will leave without every buying a thing. But, there are some simple techniques to engage and capture leads. These methods are so effective that they can increase sales by 500%. I’ll fill you in on how you’re doing with Lead Capture.
• Usability Analysis — The easier you make it for your customers to buy from you, the more sales you’ll make 9and the fewer customers you’ll chase away).
• Sales Funnel Analysis — Not all sales are made online. Some require a handshake. Still, there’s a process, and if it’s flawed, I’ll help you make it better.

Your four part website review is just $97, and fully applied to any future web development work I do for you.

Reserve Your Website Profitability Review Now. Click Here.