Years ago getting that #1 rank was easy.  But things have changed. Competition has  increased. And anyone in the  internet marketing field has learned the basics with most all of them saying “they do SEO.” Even business owners are doing it. So now to get Google’s attention – and, more importantly, your customer’s attention –  you have to step it up.

I gave this talk at the Santa  Cruz WordPress Meetup group in September, 2013. These are certainly not all the SEO techniques you should be implementing, but here are a few that address the ho-hum approaches that everyone is doing now.

The word is out. Google has released their disavow link tool, the SEO world is abuzz, and now you’re paranoid, thinking you should do something about it.

So stop worrying, already. You probably don’t need to do anything.

According to Google itself, “The primary purpose of this tool is to help clean up if you’ve hired a bad SEO or made mistakes in your own link-building.”

The following is my gift to Kim  Kennedy of Vacation Broken Bow Lake in appreciation for her generous donation to the Leukemia Lymphoma Society. Thank you Kim!

Vacation Broken Bow is coming up in the back stretch!

Good news. I’m seeing some things I did not see a couple of months ago when I first peeked at vacationbrokenbowlake.com‘s rank in Google. Back then for their main keywords, they only showed up in the PPC (pay per click) ads. Today, they are in tenth position in the organic listings (free) for “vacation rentals broken bow lake.” For “broken bow lake cabin rentals” they are in position 9. And interestingly, if you switch that around to “cabin rentals broken bow lake,” Google sees that as a local query and returns Place pages where Vacation Broken Bow is in position C and fifth on the page. Looks like the owner Kim Kennedy has been applying some of the things she’s been learning by following the SEO pros in Twitter.  Or maybe she hired out some help. Whatever the case, congratulations, Kim! Nice to see the improvement.

(And once found, how can it stand out in the crowd?)

This site audit freely given to Jen Jaciw in appreciation for your generous support of Team in Training and the Leukemia Lymphoma Society and Kat & Mouse’s ride around Lake Tahoe in support of the cause. Thank you Jen!

Challenge –

Lone Star Limousine runs their business in sprawling Silicon Valley and serves more than 26 cities. How does a local business serving local clientele get found in Google for queries on all those cities for all their services and keywords? Add to that the fact that there are literally hundreds of other businesses competing for that position. And then once found, how can they be the one that gets picked.

Problem – One physical location, many locations served.

How does Google know which sites to return in local queries?

This site audit is my gift to Chrystal Bougon in return for her generous contribution to Team in Training and the Leukemia Lymphoma Society on my behalf. Thank you Chrystal!

Did the title get your attention?

This reminds me of when I was running for student body secretary. I guess was a born marketer and didn’t even know it.

One of my campaign posters was completely black except for big, white text that read SEX, and under that in very tiny white print it said, “Now that I have your attention, vote for Kathy for secretary.”

It worked because during the lunch hour on the first day I posted it, a crowd of students flocked around it. Problem is, it offended the janitor so he took it down and gave me a tongue lashing. But I had already accomplished my goal, i.e., get attention.

That was then, but times have changed. These days people are much more open about their sexuality and Chrystal Bougon is using that to her advantage with her off and online adult toy store called “Bliss Connection.”

And while she’s doing well locally, she’s not getting much attention in the national market. This is because her business exists in a VERY CROWDED space and competes online against big guns (no pun intended) that spend upwards of $140,000 a month on PPC ads to assure they are seen on that first page in Google!

This sponsorship offer has passed.

But local businesses, look for opportunities like this to get inbound links. Your business benefits, but so do those you support. It’s a win/win.

Here are some search queries to perform to find your own sponsor opportunities:

“become a sponsor”
“donate”
“our supporters”

And if you want to find those sponsorship opportunities in your city simply add + “your city” to those queries.

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You’ve heard it over and over again. You need links on other sites pointing to yours to climb in Google. And that in turn gets you seen and then brings you customers. And you’ve heard SEOs state over and over again that a great way to get those inbound links is by sponsoring a non-profit, an event, or your community’s little league, for example, because typically those organizations will list you as a sponsor on their website along with a link.

Today, I’m offering businesses something much more beneficial than your typical sponsor links.

If you know SEO at all, you know that you can increase the power of your link juice in the following ways: