Want More Local Web Leads? Target Local + Country Search Content.

Localizing Content Can Bring Lead Generation and Search Engine Success.

Focusing SEO and PPC into optimizing key local country search campaigns can be effective and very profitable.

So why localize webpage content, when appropriate? Because it works... really well. The quality leads I see generated every day on a global basis generated from localized webpages tell me we're on the right track, and getting leads we may have missed otherwise.

Localized Search Optimization
will produce additional quality leads.

Targeting localized search is another example of using long-tail search marketing tactics. There is extra work ahead in order to succeed and dominate in location focused search results. Adding localized content also means thinking through how to harmonize such pages with more global, "generic" content pages which are located on the same website. Assuming the website is global and one language (English), webpage duplication must be minimized, and cross-linking must be logical.

This article will focus on localized content on webpages for localized SEO in English.

There are very effective localization tools which will not be discussed in this article, such as Geo-targeting call-to-actions and using Google's Local Search Listings. These SEO tools deserve their own time.

Another extremely powerful technique to dominate local search, not covered here, is the creation of additional language (Spanish, French, German, Chinese, etc) and language specific country websites (Mexico, Spain, France, Germany, China, etc). This tactic also deserves separate time and attention.

So, how does localized search work, and when should you create local content webpages in addition to generic content pages?

First, be aware that Google operates different search engine websites for different countries. The results on those national search engines will serve up different results than Google.com, in English and especially in the local language. In English, don't assume that if your page is doing well with organic SERP on www.google.com, that the page will also do as well on www.google.co.uk!

It really doesn't matter if your business is global (like mine), or national, regional, and local. People will search for goods and services millions of different ways. Adding location to a search query is a common search tactic, and using location in a search may indicate a high quality prospect is looking for a vendor. That global vendor may as well be you.

For example, I may have a global generic-content webpage focused on "Turbo Ionic Cleaners". The page is global in scope, and any visitor will see content geared to a global audience. It works really well on www.google.com.

But what about a potential customer in India who wants to know more about "Turbo Ionic Cleaners in India"? If all goes well, my generic page will hopefully rank on www.google.co.in. But if that market is big enough, a competitor may feel it worth building a webpage all about "Turbo Ionic Cleaners in India", and their webpage will have specific references to India and the Indian market. I suspect their India focused webpage will easily outrank mine on search results. In fact, my generic page may not even appear in organic listings, depending upon the search query.

This makes complete sense. Google wants to serve up the most relevant results possible. If a searcher adds local information like country, state, city, even street, Google will ruthlessly sort out results which fall outside those search terms.

So adding local content to a localized webpage designed to target locally focused search can be successful and expand the potential market audience you can reach. The trick is to make sure the page is not duplicating a generic webpage, but is rather complementing the generic page and 'orbiting' it in terms of hierarchy.

Once a new webpage is developed which meets localized country-specific content criteria, consider launching niche Adwords and BING campaigns to further support this page in the country or market being targeted.

Local search content is a variant of long-tail content search. If you want quality leads, go long-tail.

Even with English being commonly used across the world for technical search term queries, adding local intent into search terms can greatly impact search result rankings. Becoming aware of these variations and exploiting for local markets can make a big difference in lead generation.

SERP Savvy Success: Number One out of 43.3 Million Pages

Focusing on organic search optimization can pay big SERP dividends. 

Thanks to precise, concise and relevant webpage content sitting in well-designed, refreshed, and maintained websites, I've been enjoying for some years many, many high search engine results page (SERP) results for many, many key search phrases... across multiple key market, service, technical and geographic niches.

Searching for SERP.

Today was a stellar example of SERP savvy success; a Google search result run today yielded an outstanding example of just how valuable effective SEO efforts can be. For a key service search phrase (three words), this specific webpage ranks number one out of 43,300,000 other webpages indexed by Google.

The search term is rather generic, which explains the 43.3 million indexed webpages. But the term has strong business value for our lead generation efforts. Because of our quality page content and additional related content on other pages in the website, along with multiple other web factors in our control and out of our control, Google's algorithm has decided our webpage was the most relevant for that particular search. Hooray!

Now it is time to put things back into a realistic perspective. One can never gloat about SEO for long. Search Engine Marketing success can never be taken for granted. You have to walk and/or run just to keep your position. Stop good SEO and you'll slide down the rankings over time.

Last week I created a new companion webpage for the superstar webpage, and the new page has had a strong debut at #10 SERP results out of 750,000 indexed pages. This is good, but not quite SERP nirvana yet. Will time and patience bring that page-rank up in the next few weeks, or do I have to revisit that page, slightly re-engineer it, tweak it, and see what happens next?

High SERP results are only part of a total SEO lead generation effort. Ranking is just a step in the process, a vital one, but just one step of many. After you have their attention with a high SERP you need to start selling. Important webpage selling features include having well-written content which your actual potential customers, not just search engine algorithims, will understand and be favorably impressed with. Having strong niche educational, feature, benefit and call-to-action content is important. Having good website usability and navigation is another plus. There is much more to consider besides SERP success.

SEO success is great, but it is wise to always look ahead and behind - - your 'aware' competitors are trying to chase you down and pass you up.

Connect with Erik Holladay on Linkedin.

Promoting a new online business on a limited budget.

Getting leads and promoting your business with a limited ad budget.

So you're launching a new small online business, and you have limited promotional funds. Promotion is vital to your new business, because it leads to lead generation which leads to customers which leads to revenue and profits.

The Gift which keeps on Giving:
Search Engine Success will Drive Growth 24/7/365.

My advice is fairly simple, and it doesn't cost a lot of money... if you do it right... just some quality thinking, actions and some of your time.

1. Get Found on Organic Search Engine Results:

This means you need to rank on Google and BING and other search engines. Your website and webpages must be SEO friendly and content must be focused and relevant to your target market. If your business is local, then make sure your content references location. Sign up with Google for free local listings. Get quality websites to link to you if possible and avoid black-hat tactics. Then monitor results and keep trying if your pages are not showing up on page one search results for search terms you want. Benchmark against webpages that rank higher than yours, and make an effort to understand what needs to be done to raise your own page ranking. Organic Search success takes time and persistence but can yield huge rewards for your business. 

Target local search results for maximum success, especially if your business is targeting a geographic area like a city, county, or neighborhood.  

Cost: FREE (not including initial website development and content management costs)

2. Take Advantage of Social Media:
Social Media is evolving and growing quickly, and is another powerful tool... if used wisely. Social Media takes time and effort to make an impact. Understand your target market and gear your efforts to get their attention. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and others offer free ways to establish your brand and service. You can also run ads. Focus on getting these social media sites linked with your main website and blogs. Add social 'share' and 'follow' buttons on your web and blog pages. Then promote the sites and gain friends, contacts, follwers, etc. Patience is important with Social Media as progress can be slow and even random, but when you hit critical mass it will directly benefit your business. Go easy on propaganda and overt promotion or you'll lose your audience. You're enticing visitors to visit your business website, the sell should be professional and low-key.

Cost: Mostly Free

3. Blogs:
They are mini-websites and they are free, and they are powerful. They can easily rocket to high rankings in organic search if the topic and niche is focused. Create niche blogs that feed to your main website and each other. Each blog should be unique on the topics and subjects they cover... and ideally done in a professional  and neutral manner - - content should attract readers, and don't subject them to 'advertorials'. Cross-Link your main website to this 'solar system' of blogs which orbit your main site. 

Cost: FREE

4. Paid Search Ads:

OK, this is not free, but it can be very effective and cheap! Open up Google Adwords and BING paid search accounts. Focus on your key search terms and try them out in very focused campaigns and ad-groups. You can limit your daily spend, you have total control of your costs. You can limit the campaigns to specific locations - - geographical areas, even cities, and languages, time-zones, etc. Paid search can cost you just a dollar a day if you  want. But results are immediate and help fill gaps in your organic search results. Display ads on 3rd party websites broaden your ad reach by a large amount.... and your added costs can be just pennies a click. With Google, you will also get FREE access to Google Analytics, which when loaded on your main website can provide you great visitor tracking, search term research, understanding and insight into your website.

Cost: You Decide


5. Email:
Use of email to qualified and targeted individuals, when done professionally, can produce another stream of leads and business. To avoid spamming issues, it is important to follow best practices, including clear opt-in and opt-out options. Segment your email lists so that you can better tailor your emails. Always include links back to your website and/or blogs. Clean up your email lists on a regular basis. Use a professional 3rd party email provider to send out the emails, such as Constant Contact, to help look professional, avoid being banned as spam by IT managers at your targeted companies. Review your email campaign stats to improve openings and click-throughs. Produce, or have produced for you, professional looking emails and newsletters in .html format which can survive various email server filters and format compatibility issues. Avoid spam-like behavior at all costs.
Cost: Variable


These five tactics; organic search, social media, blogs, paid search, and email, can bring very lucrative results to even the smallest online business with the smallest marketing and promotional budget. If used together in one cohesive strategy, the positive impact on your business can dramatic.


Regards; Erik Holladay

Adding a Single Keyword Turns a Webpage from Invisible to Dominant

Crafting a B-to-B webpage which controls the top organic websearch results in Google and other search engines takes time, thought and effort. The stakes are high. If your webpage does not show up on page one for organic search results, your page essentially does not exist to search engine users.

Sometimes a very simple head-slapping fix can turn a poorly ranking webpage into a world champion organic search-engine lead machine, beating the competition by ranking at or near the top.

A recurring example involves location-targeted webpages. The 'local' or 'regional' webpages were not ranking for key location-specific search terms the stakeholders want. When I reviewed the problem pages, it was apparent that actual name of that targeted location was not on the pages... not in the headlines, not in the text, not anywhere. So how could a search engine make the connection? It couldn't. By simply adding the place name to the pages in key spots, the problem was solved and the previously "invisible" webpages transformed into page one ranking pages on Google for organic search.

There are times when an easy common sense fix will solve a major SEO problem. It is easy to overlook a content issue or enhancement, no one is perfect. This is why having others look at our work is so important...

 Search Engine Marketing is Industrial Strength Lead Generation (Or Should Be). 

Raise Organic Search Rankings by Reducing Page Content

Reducing the content on a key web-page, if properly done, can rocket a newly slimmed-down page to new organic ranking heights for competitive and valuable Google search terms.

Having a poorly ranking web-page is an opportunity for improvement. First look at the total situation and purpose of the web-page.

1. What I am selling?

2. Who am I selling to?

3. Is my content Concise and Precise?

3a. Can I split up the content on this page into new pages?

3b. Can I reduce the remaining content on my original page?

Many web-pages suffer poor SEO due to long scrolling text, non-essential words and phrases. The same page could suffer from secondary and tertiary content that should stand alone as separate web-pages. The web-page is not focused enough for Google give a good ranking for the keyword(s) the page is trying to target. Too much content, too many subjects produces a page that is not focused, not precise, not concise and not as relevant as it could be.

The Relevancy and Ranking Fix is simple in theory:

1. Put the page on a words diet: streamline the content.

2. Follow good SEO copy-writing practice and don't 'pack' your keywords.

3.Take out surplus content not directly related to the page's mission.

4. Put any important newly removed content into a new, dedicated web-page(s) that is cross-linked with the original page.

When done, instead of having one long, scrolling web-page there may be one, two or three shorter, more concise web-pages that are relevant and related... offering greater content value to visitors and higher relevancy to Google.

This process takes some thought and work. But if done correctly, you'll see spectacular results.

I have web-pages that routinely rank 1, 2, 3, 4 against millions of other indexed Google pages for key search terms... because over the years I have streamlined content, split content and generally tried to make the pages precise and concise and cross-linked to other relevant web-pages.

I have also been happily surprised to see an unexpected web-page become a top-ranked page for a key competitive search-term. When that happens, I am flexible enough to often seize the opportunity and keep the page optimized for visitor relevancy and SEO. It's a gift from Google that can be taken complete advantage of.

Patience and success by trial and error are the norm. Google is the ultimate judge on organic page rankings.... we can only keep trying. Victory may take months to achieve, but the resulting high quality web enquiries produced make the effort worth it.