Strategy for Success

Local SEO Marketing is directly related to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which is the process of getting ranked highly on the search engines for local search queries.

The major search engines, currently Google and Bing, include organic (free) listings, for which web pages and other indexable content (social pages, videos, PDFs) are listed based on what the search engine’s ranking criteria defines as most relevant to a user’s search query.  There are a variety of factors that will affect a website’s ranking over time, and proven strategies of which we employ that will help your site achieve a prominent SEO ranking.

We have outlined many of the strategies we employ to get websites to rank well locally; and unlike many other web design companies, we don’t have a fixed price for our SEO services since every website will have unique optimization and marketing needs.

Evaluate, Optimize, and Track

Relevancy of content, defined by a website’s indexable content matching the keywords submitted in a search query is the primary consideration of any good SEO plan. The thing to understand is that SEO is not a gimmick, it’s a process of optimizing the pages to ensure they load fast in desktop and mobile; ensuring that there is good keyword density and relevance so that the website comes up highly in a related search query; and ensuring that the website is linked to by all of the primary directory websites. Our expertise in search engine ranking criteria allows us to edit your pages correctly, ensuring that the necessary provisions are in place, and that there is optimal keyword density to achieve high search relevancy.

Initial Website Evaluation

Firstly it’s important to note that we provide for SEO on all the websites we develop, yet this is our Standard SEO, which includes keyword optimized title and description meta-tags, Alt (ADA Accessibility) tags for images, general advice on including keywords for headings and content, general social media suggestions, and we include an XML sitemap for effective indexing. Yet we also have an Advanced SEO service, which includes a lot more.

To assist in our website evaluations and tracking we use the best of the free SEO tools available.  Many of these tools can be found on our SEO Resources page.

For an existing website we will first evaluate your site’s layout with regard to how your content is presented and the page’s ability to be indexed effectively. We then create a listing of the keywords that need to be targeted for by reviewing your services and searching your business type and industry for the most commonly searched terms — these are the words and short phrases that will likely be used in a search query to find your website. Next we examine your existing page content for the inclusion of these words, with appropriate variation, and review your top ranked competitor sites to use as a comparison model for keyword targeting and correction. Next we do a name and domain search to find where your business has been listed, and we do a full assessment of your social media pages and marketing content.

There are many factors that influence SEO ranking, which you can learn about from our Google SEO ranking factors blog post.

In-depth Evaluation

SEO Evaluation Charts

As part of the evaluation process we will link up the website to Google Analytics and Search Console for assessment and tracking. Our initial check looks at average page load time, page popularity, session duration, device use, visitor location, and bounce rate. We also look at potential crawl errors, blocked URLs and broken links, and that there is a site-map in place. Next we use GTMetrix which checks the page speed score, if images are optimized, the use of deferred parsing and caching, if scripts are minified, use of inline CSS, compression, the number of requests, and varied other measures of site performance. We use SEO Minion to analyze on-page SEO factors, we check for broken links, and do a SERP review. We use WooRank for content analysis, that no Alt tags are missing, test for in-page links, font legibility for mobile, and more.

We use Ubersuggest next to gain more insight on the keywords that a site ranks for, their popularity and ranking, the top SEO pages, monthly traffic, domain score, and backlink profile. We also check that the URLs are being consistently presented to avoid duplicate URL penalties, and we check the meta-titles and meta-descriptions for length and that they’re unique. And at the W3C we check the site for web accessibility compatibility. And for an additional fee we will use the #1 commercial SEO platform, SEMrush, for in-depth keyword research, competitor assessment, visibility review, backlinking opportunities, and daily report monitoring.

From the varied tests we perform we will have a very good idea of the changes needed to improve the site ranking.

Tracking and Corrections

From our website evaluation we will make initial keyword corrections to the text copy and headings of all of your pages, and assist in content creation where needed. We will rewrite the meta-titles and descriptions to ensure that they are keyword optimized, of optimal length, and both unique and specific to the page content (important). We will edit the ALT (images) and TITLE (links) tags of all pages for effective indexing and to ensure ADA compliance; and for services and product pages we will re-title images to ensure that they can be found from image searches.  If page speed is a concern we can minify JavaScript and CSS files, optimize image file sizes for web, utilize a high speed cache system, add far future expiration, and add GZIP compression.  If site security improvements are needed we will add a professional firewall and virus scanner, and add additional measures to block email spam and prevent hacker exploits.  We also assist with social media setup and management.

Once everything looks good we create and submit an XML Site-map at Google and Bing.  The final step is to submit the website to the best of the free directories, which we’ve included on our website submission page.

As part of our Advanced SEO service we monitor your website traffic patterns and provide periodic updates on all facets of visitor usage and behavior: Audience, Traffic Sources, and Content.  For clients with a Gmail account we will provide them online access to their accounts for their own evaluation.

Reports and Periodic Adjustments

Once your website tracking is in place we will further evaluate the success of your pages. After a few weeks we will have a clear idea of your website’s improvement, and from this we will make additional changes, as needed.  After these final changes have been made we typically like to wait a couple of months before making additional changes so as to ensure that the website placement has had time to move.

In most cases our optimization and marketing clients will achieve a top search engine ranking within a few months, if not sooner. Yet it is important to note that the heart of any good SEO plan is the recognition that periodic changes need to be made to the website to ensure that search trend / industry changes are provided for. We encourage our clients to regularly utilize blogs and social media to augment their online web presence.

Case Study

We started working with Gilchrist Golf Cars in 2008, for which we redeveloped their first website in XHTML.  While our 2008 website is simple by modern standards, our layout was a significant step forward from what they had.  Our standard SEO work did improve their online presence considerably.  In our client’s own words:

I just wanted to let you know that I am very pleased with how the website is working, and I know that the decision to go with you and have the website built professionally was without doubt the best advertising decision I have made. So I look forward to building on that success and make this even better. Thanks for all your hard work.– Derek Gilchrist, Gilchrist Golf Cars.

In 2012 we suggested to our client that it was time to redevelop their website again.  With the new layout we implemented additional SEO measures, which primarily consisted of content improvements of the primary pages, with an emphasis on better keyword targeting.  With these changes our client came up near or at the top of the search listings for most relevant search queries.

And then in 2017 we redeveloped their website a third time using the WordPress CMS to provide for mobility (responsive design) and to take advantage of improvements in styling and scripting.

Case Study SEO

In 2019 our client expressed an interest in our Advanced SEO services.  It’s important to understand that while their business consistently ranked near the top for target search queries as a result of the SEO work we had already done, they were not getting the sales wanted, and they felt that the service and rental department could do better.  Our goal was simple, ensure that our client’s business in Rocklin ranked at the very top for golf car/cart sales, rental, and service in the larger market of Sacramento, CA.

SEO Changes

As illustrated in our evaluations, first we did a full review of website traffic and visitor behavior utilizing Google Analytics and Google Search Console.  As you can see next, the number of visitors hadn’t really changed much since we started tracking in 2013.  There were some dips in traffic based upon seasonal fluctuation, yet the traffic remained mostly consistent year after year.  So what was the problem?

Google Analytics History

What we discovered was that while our client’s website had consistent traffic, the bounce rate had gradually increased as did visits by mobile device.  The changes in user behavior and device use let us know that we needed to do a better job of representing the services and engaging visitors.  From our research at GTMetrix, Ubersuggest, and SEMrush we implemented a comprehensive plan to make their website more appealing to their visitors.

Our measures of improvement included:

  • Targeting for primary services on home page to increase visibility
  • Page speed optimization in desktop and mobile
  • Rewriting of the page meta-tags where needed to improve search relevancy
  • Improved title, alt, and description tags for all images for accessibility and ranking
  • Additional text on low performing pages, especially on the gallery pages to improve keyword density
  • Improved inbound/cross linking between pages
  • FAQs on several pages to educate visitors and improve keyword density
  • Social media improvements
  • Reputation management
  • Disavowing backlinks for websites with low authority rating
  • Updating directory listings

Tracking Progress

Part of any well considered SEO plan is to track and measure user behavior.  Since our SEO changes began in the last quarter of 2019, we used this time frame as the starting point for evaluation.  As you can see from the Google Analytics report shown next, there has been a significant increase in traffic since April 2020.

In Google Search Console we can see a big increase in impressions from August 2019 through February 2020.  And in early 2020 there was a big improvement in clicks, nearly 3 times as many as in the first part of 2019.

Website Ranking

As a result of the increase in visitor traffic my client’s website is now the first Google business listing for sales, service, and rental for the region of Sacramento.  And while nearly impossible to do, they even beat our Yelp for golf car sales.

SEO ranking at Google

Our client has since let us know that that while rentals have slowed down some as a result of Covid-19, there has been a significant increase in car sales and visits to their new showroom.  In my client’s own words:

SEO Client Email