NorthStarSEO.com: Affordable Small Business SEO Services
At the heart of our core services is providing affordable small business SEO services. However, our core services also include Google Places optimization, 3rd party directory submissions and optimization, and providing consulting on how to get more positive customer reviews. This page provides an overview of what each of these services are and what we do.
Small Business SEO
There are two components to SEO (search engine optimization) that all small businesses need to know about. There is on-page SEO and off-page SEO. On-page SEO are those things you do to your website to optimize it for the search engines. Off-page SEO are all other things you do outside of your website (i.e. getting other websites to link to your website).
When hiring us, we take care of both components of search engine optimization for you – not only when you initially hire us but on an on-going basis as well. We make sure your website is fully optimized for the search engines and we use proven techniques for optimal results when addressing the off-page components of SEO. The end result is that your website ranks high in the search engines and you get a flood of FREE traffic and new customers!
On-Page SEO for Small Businesses
There are many aspects to your website that need to be optimized for the search engines that we address. Here are just some of the things we do:
- Domain registration & advice (if needed)
- Meta data optimization (title, description, keywords)
- Image optimization (implementing alt & title tags to images)
- Keyword research and optimization
- HTML & XML sitemap creation
- Google GEO sitemap & KML file creation
- Internal linking optimization
- Page loading speeds
Off-Page SEO for Small Businesses
There are several things that need to be done to address off-page SEO. You have to be careful, however, because if you don’t do off-page SEO the right way, your website can actually get penalized and deindexed by the search engines. We employ proven off-page strategies to ensure your website stays clear of any penalties and ranks high in the search engines. Some of the techniques include:
- Webmaster setup and sitemap submissions to Google, Yahoo!, and Bing
- General web directory and business directory submissions
- Social bookmarking
- Article submissions
- Press release submissions
- RSS submissions
If you’re new to small business SEO, many of the things discussed here may be confusing and overwhelming. Most business owners don’t know about things like, “HTML and XML sitemap” creation. That’s what we’re here for – to explain all aspects of SEO for small businesses and to take care of everything for you so you can concentrate on what you do best – running your business!
Google Places SEO & Optimization
Google launched a free service called Google Places in April of 2010. Google Places is a database of information of small businesses across the globe. Every business can have their own “Google Places listing.” Each listing is a dedicated web page for the business. It contains information such as the business name, address, phone numbers, email addresses, website url, photos and videos, detailed business description, and reviews and comments left by customers. Here is an example of a Google Places listing.
Having a Google Places listing is very important because these listings typically show up at the top of the first page of the Google search results – above the other “regular” organic results. A recent study by BrightLocal.com concluded that Google Places directs 33% of all website traffic to local business websites!
It’s not good enough to just have a Google Places listing, however. Like your website, you want your Google Places listing to be fully optimized because Google gives preference to optimized listings so they tend to show up for local search results at the very top of the first page (typically positions 1-4). Your listing will be optimized when it is claimed, completed in its entirety, and is optimized for the keywords pertaining to your business (a practice called Google Places SEO).
Another very important component of our core services is providing Google Places SEO and Optimization. When you hire us, we fully optimize your Google Places listing and we make sure that when potential customers search for your products or services, they find your business at the very top of the first page of search results.
3rd Party Directories
Getting your small business listed in the important local business directories in your industry is another component of our core services. There are hundreds of local business directories online where you can submit your business information to be included in the directories. Some examples of these directories include Yelp, Merchant Circle, and Insider Pages.
These directories serve two important purposes: (1) they provide additional exposure for your business and (2), they help drive more traffic to your website. It’s imperative that your business be found in these directories as they rank very well in the search engines, and some of them have a strong and loyal following of users. If the users of these local business directories like what they read about your business, they will likely contact you or at the very least visit your website.
There are also thousands of online web directories (a.k.a. third-party directories) that you can take advantage of to increase your Internet presence. These directories allow you to submit a brief description of your website along with a link to your website. Given their name, “web directories,” these directories are more general in nature and have links to every type of website imaginable. Some of these directories offer free submissions while others require payment.
Working with us, we submit your business and website information to these directories every month to continuously build your Internet presence and to increase the traffic to your website.
Customer Reviews
A person’s decision to do business with you will often times be determined by what others say about your business. It’s very common for people to look for reviews online of your business before contacting you. If they can’t find any reviews or if they do and they are mostly negative, they will likely NOT contact you. Having no reviews can be just as bad as having negative reviews.
Part of our core services is providing your business with strategies and techniques you can employ to get your customers to not only leave you reviews, but to leave you positive reviews. Our goal is to make sure that when potential customers find your business listed on third-party directories and in Google Places, they see several positive reviews. The more positive reviews you have, the more business you will get!
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