But here’s the catch: Google Analytics is not a hit counter.

Analytics is a powerful and useful tool for spotting changes in user trends, seeing rises and falls in traffic and the like. It is not this decade’s answer to those crummy hit counter gifs from the 90’s.

There’s a million different reasons why the numbers given in Analytics isn’t 100% accurate. The tracking code can be blocked by the user, the code may not be implemented right by the developer (not that, surely not that ) and so on. This doesn’t detract from the power of the tool however, with a little study Analytics can be a great insight into your visitor base.

Just don’t call your Developer or Marketer and claim they’re a bunch of liars because there numbers don’t match what’s in Analytics!

In the past, setting up local business listings for mobile or home based businesses was quite difficult. A street address was required, and if you tried to obscure this from the public by deleting it there would be problems with map location, and verifying by postcard became impossible. This is no longer the case with Google Places which allows you to hide your address, and if you’re a mobile business you can actually define the limits of your service area on the map.

There are a few more features on the horizon including ‘tags’ – small icons that will help you stand out on the map – but you’ll have to pay for these.

For example, bloo.com.au provides widgets for a range of functions. For external sites a ‘Search Widget’ is available which allows the business listings on bloo to be searched from anywhere, but look closely – you’ll notice a set of links embedded in the widget itself. Providing the site hosting the widget doesn’t ‘nofollow’ the links, bloo instantly has a few more backlinks. Remember however that we design and develop on the internet for our users, not the search engines, so make sure the widget is useful and will add value to any site it is placed on. Bloo has widgets that provide search, free call and audio business ‘plug’ functionality which gives back to their customers while creating backlinks for itself.

Simpler is better for widgets, as they will be appearing on pages you have no control over. You won’t know what technologies, styling, or control over their server your target webmasters have. Once again we’ll use the bloo search widget as an example – a user can search a term on any site the widget is placed on and will be presented with a bloo page containing the results. The mechanisms that return the results are extremely complex, but all the widget does is send a search term to the bloo server and all the hard work is done there.

So how do you start the ‘link-building’ process? For developers out there, like myself, the thought of approaching strangers and convincing them to link to you might seem daunting. Conversely you might be the business owner or manager for whom forging business relationships is a daily occurrence, but may not know what should be linked to and how.

In either case link building starts the same way – identify other web sites that are relevant to your topic and have high SERP rankings, then approach the site owner and ask them to link to you. Sounds easy enough? Well let’s break it down anyway.

Relevance

Research has shown that links from sites with subject matter related to your own pass more value to your site. If you’re selling car parts for BMW, approach some of the many BMW owner and fan sites, and to a lesser extent car enthusiast sites as a whole. A nightclub might do well to target sites about the nightlife in your area and entertainment guides. The high relevance in both of these examples doesn’t just help your link building efforts, it is likely that the links will send traffic to your site as they’re being viewed by people already searching your subject matter.

Ranking

Is there a way to tell how well a target site is ranking? Is it possible to see the value they’re passing in their links?

Luckily the answer is ‘yes’ in both cases. You can view a rudimentary ‘rank’ of a site by installing the Google Toolbar which gives you a peek at the PageRank while you’re browsing. Be warned, the number displayed by the toolbar is not accurate and in some cases can be out of date. If you’re serious about SEO consider employing the SEO tools created by the the talented guys and girls at  SEOmoz, which will allow you to see site rankings, link strength and optimisation tips among other things.

Next week we’ll cover some of the tactics you can use to encourage other site owners to link to your site.

Keyword Targeting

Before you can dive headlong into covering your page with the terms you think your customers are searching for, it pays to do a little research. If you run a Chinese restaurant in Subiaco you may have a fight on your hands to rank for ‘restaurant’ or ‘Perth restaurant.’ You can try to target some more specific – and less competitive – terms such as ‘Chinese restaurant Subiaco’, ‘BYO Chinese restaurant Subiaco’ etcetera. When I refer to your ‘targeted keywords’, it is this search term I’m talking about.

Title Tags

This is arguably the most important change you can make to your page.  Make sure the first few words of your page title match a phrase you are targeting, don’t waste it on your company name. Even worse is using the same title for every page on your site – it’s often overlooked but can be a massive waste of those precious title tags.

If you have access to the code on your site, the title of each page can be found between the <title></title> tags in the <head></head> section of the code.

Headers

Second in importance to the title tag is the headers you use on the page. In HTML terms, this is the text within <h1> tags down to <h2>, <h3> and so on. Headers create a structure to your page which will make it easier to read for both the search engines and your visitors. Include your targeted keywords in an <h1>, and break down the content on the page as you see fit into sections following <h2>’s and <h3>’s.

Content

Search engines love content rich sites, with lots of text for their spiders to crawl. It pays to flesh out the text on your site and slot in your targeted keywords wherever you can. Make sure the text is human readable, not just a long list of keywords, as search engines have become more adept at detecting search engine manipulation by ‘keyword stuffing.’ Make sure your content is in text and not in images or javascript popups, as the search engines will a have difficult time reading it.

External Link Anchor Text

Technically not ‘on-page optimisation’, but all the optimising in the world won’t increase your ranking if no one links to your site. The anchor text is the word or phrase in the link, eg. In the link Plumbers Perth, ‘plumbers Perth’ is the anchor text.

It is very important that you try to include your targeted keywords in links pointing to your site, as it tells the search engines what your page is all about before it visits it. You won’t always have control over the links on sites you don’t own, but try to make it a part of your link building efforts.

Firstly, including your business information on trusted directory sites is a must. Invest a little time and create free or paid listings on sites such as bloo.com.au. Google uses these trusted domains as a source of verified information, and when it sees your details repeated around the web on trusted sites it can add to your listing weight. You’ll be able to see these sources by viewing your Local Business listing and looking in the ‘web sites’ (or recently ‘more about this place’) section.

Reviews are another part of the ranking algorithm. If you take a look at the listings for a highly competitive term, you’ll see the top spots usually have a number of reviews associated with them. Encourage your customers to review your business via the Local Business Center! A number of reviews will help with your listing ranking – and don’t worry if there are a few negative ones in there, you can’t please all of the people all of the time!

Typically you’d enter a search term such as ‘Hairdressers Maylands’ or ‘Restaurants in Fremantle’ and be greeted with a map of the location and three or ten businesses plotted out for you. Considering these listings appear before the organic results, and play by a different set of ranking rules – you can quite easily outrank a larger competitor who is without a Local Listing. All for free, with minimum input from yourself!

So let’s get started…

Firstly, navigate to http://www.google.com.au/local/add . You’ll need a Google account for this step so if you don’t already have one, sign up now. Trust me, you’ll need it for much more than the Local Business Centre.

The first screen asks for your basic business information, but even here there are opportunities to optimise the listing.

• Title: Although it is against Google best practice to put anything other than your business name here, throw in a term or keyword you are targeting. For example, the Leederville Dome Café (if it exists, there’s bound to be one there) might set their title as ‘Dome Café – Coffee Leederville’. Don’t overdo it, nothing will raise the spam flag quicker than ‘Joe’s Plumbing Perth, Gasfitting Perth, Plumbers Perth’.

• Address: Street addresses are the best here. If you run your business from home and don’t want it displayed, enter the street name only. In the past PO Boxes were a great way to hide your address and also plot your location much closer to your city centre, but both PO Boxes and proximity to the ‘centroid’ are slowly becoming less relevant.

• Phone: Landlines are preferred, mobile numbers are acceptable. Don’t bother with your 1300 or 1800 number here, as it ranks lower and can be a roadblock when ‘claiming’ this listing.

• Categories: Don’t be tempted to stuff keywords in here. You’ll need at least one category set by Google and up to four custom set by you, but make sure they are terms that will be searched and are relevant to your business.

The next page is where you can fill your listing with relevant content. Make sure you write an accurate description and try to get your targeted keywords in their without compromising its readability. Upload as many photos as you can, up to ten, and link to any videos about your business that you’ve uploaded to Youtube. (We’ve all had a professional video advertisement created, right? No?)

What I’ve found when creating Local Business listings for bloo customers is that content goes a long way in the rankings, and their bloo advertisements already contain all the images and info we need to create a successful listing. bloo can also produce a high definition video advertisement for your business at an extremely competitive price which you can use for this purpose, embed in your web site, or use for a television campaign.

Finally at the bottom of this page you’re given the chance to spell out the finer details of your service that didn’t fit in the ‘categories’ box. Using the ‘Service’ : ‘Description’ pairs as below, we can get a lot of relevant keywords in here. For example a beauty salon may list the following:

IPL Treatments : Yes
Day Spa : Yes
Manicures : Yes

Once again, don’t spam it but fill it up!

Next comes activating and claiming your listing. This is extremely important as an ‘unverified’ listing will have extremely poor ranking. The easiest way to do this is with a phone call, choosing this method will trigger a call to the number you’ve listed and a recording will give you a five digit pin number. Enter this alongside your listing in your Local Business Centre and you’re done!

Next week we’ll look at some of the steps you can take after your listing is live to improve its ranking.

This blog is here to help you, the small business or web site owner with easy to implement solutions to help your site rank better. Perhaps you’re not the person in control of your web site, or just don’t have time to learn SEO for yourself? I’ll explain the jargon of the search marketing industry to help you hire a consultant worth their salt.

In a nutshell, this is SEO for the complete beginner, from someone in exactly that position not so long ago.

Let’s get started with some of the more common industry terms: SEO, SEM, SERP.

Do any of those acronyms mean anything to you? The first one might, it’s in the title of the blog. But what exactly do they all mean? Here’s a quick breakdown:

SEO – Search Engine Optimisation

Although this term is plastered onto anything to do with search engine rankings, it actually only refers to structuring your site to be more search engine friendly. This encompasses the best practices you can implement for free, and we’ll visit this subject more in coming weeks.

SEM – Search Engine Marketing

SEM involves paying for advertising on search engines. You’ve seen these ads before, ‘Sponsored Links’, ‘Ads by Google’ and the like. This is one marketing approach where you may need the help of a professional, as a dollar spent wisely on SEM can yield fantastic results, while the same budget spent without planning can be wasted entirely. A consultant can also keep track of current trends, write and test different ad copy and constantly tweak your campaigns to ensure you get the highest return on your SEM investment.

SERP – Search Engine Result Pages

Don’t let the industry jargon confuse you, as some is quite simple. If someone says ‘SERP’ they simply mean the ‘organic’ (not paid for) result pages from Google / Bing / Yahoo etc. for a particular search term. Ranking highly in the ‘SERPs’ is what we are all aiming for.

On that note, let me also say that if your business name is ‘Joe’s Plumbing’ and you’re based in Osborne Park, ranking first for the term ‘Joe’s Plumbing’ is no victory. You want to rank highly for terms like ‘Plumbers Osborne Park’, ‘Emergency Plumbers’, you get the idea.