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Nicole
Posts: 2843
Joined: 9/15/2004
From: Nambucca / Kempsey, Australia
Status: offline
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Using Locality for SEO - 7/16/2006 8:33:33
I may be relocating from Sydney to a large regional centre in the coming weeks. Thank goodness for a lot of reasons, but also because my business, I believe, will thrive more in this area. One reason it will hopefully pick up is because the area has a very distinctive and unique name whereas where I’m located now has many draw backs as far as the place names are concerned and their frequency or liklihood of being search terms, I think, are greater. Let me explain:
I currently live in:
- Suburb: “Allawah” (a very insignificant residential only suburb with a very high ethnic population)
- Area: “St. George” also the name of the a famous football team and also associated with England, hence searching on this term brings up too many unrelated sites. Also, the area is often grouped with an adjoining area “St. George & Sutherland Shire” and I doubt many people go to that much trouble when searching.
- Part of Sydney: Southern Suburbs, but nobody talks about this area like that, so it’s not searched like that either.
- City: “Sydney” We’re talking about almost 5 million people now and many web designers, i.e. anything equal to this and above is too competitive.
The area I’m moving to with its distinct area name is a combination of two cities separated by a river, each city is in a different state but the term combining these two areas is used to describe the area almost always.
Anticipating the move I’m looking at key phrases I can use when I’m living and working there, the population is about 100,000 with maybe up to 200,000 incorporating all minor towns within the area, so we’re not taking huge, but something very achievable as far as ranking in the top 10 is concerned, heck I expect even without backlinks I could rank in the top 3.
After using the distinct area name and combining it with “web design” websites”, “web designer” etc, every combination I could think of, I’ve come up with a list of only 8 web designers in the area, actually only about half of them were using that process, the rest were found by their by-lines being attached to more major websites of local councils, community groups etc.
Then I did a search using the “Overture Keyword Selector Tool” Overture Keyword Selector Tool, and found that the unique place name was itself only searched 62 times during June.
So, I ask some questions. Those who advocate for and do well from ranking highly using a place name or area name as well as the terms “web designer” etc. What are the populations of the areas you target with your keywords, phrases, are there any other tips or tricks I should know about to promote myself in a new area, far from where I live now? How many hits does your targeted area register on that Overture Keyword link?
I’ll probably have more questions, but for now that’s it.
Nicole
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jaybee
Posts: 14176
Joined: 10/7/2003
From: Berkshire, UK
Status: offline
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RE: Using Locality for SEO - 7/16/2006 9:39:44
My advice, forget it. The category is huge for web designer and you'll spend hours and hours fruitlessly trying to increase your ranking when you could be out getting work by other means.
Even if you get it fairly high, check the keywords again, I bet you'll find most people just type web design or look in their local phone book/directory.
When you move, go down the shops during the day when it's not busy. Chat to the people in the smaller ones. Say you're new to the area, ask advice - anything to get a conversation going then casually drop in that you are a web designer. In one afternoon I picked up 5 sites from doing that. 3 immediate and 2 referrals a week later.
Have business cards with you so you can leave one with them. If you buy something and they ask for your name and address, hand them a card to take the details from.
Check out the local papers for ads and prices. Don't be tempted to stick cards in shop windows, it looks cheap, but if they have racks of local business cards or leaflets, find out what they charge to add you.
Find a couple of local churches/charities/groups that need a site and do it for cost. The members will go to the site and remember it if someone else asks.
Finally print off some small flyers. Don't put too much info on them or they'll get binned.
Use the web ranking as a backup not a primary marketing tool. You may well eventually get good ranking but the key word is eventually and then again, you may sit firmly on page 65.
_____________________________
If it ain't broke..... fix it until it is.
GAWDS
Now where did I put that Doctype?
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jaybee
Posts: 14176
Joined: 10/7/2003
From: Berkshire, UK
Status: offline
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RE: Using Locality for SEO - 7/17/2006 8:49:18
The key is, let everyone know you're a web designer but be subtle, the hard sell often frightens them off.
The thing with handing a card to people taking your name and address when you buy something or when you order something, or get your car serviced is, quite often they'll make a comment like "oooh you're a web designer. What do you charge", or "we could do with a web site".
My surgeon when I had the op done in January asked what I did for a living, I said web design, he said have you got a card, he needs a site for his private work.
I got a guy round to quote for some fencing. We chatted, I mentioned what I did, he tells me he needs a web site and what do I charge.
There's loads of them out there. Just let them know you're there, even if nothing comes of it immediately they'll remember you. The two sites I'm doing now are from someone who passed on my details to someone else. I've never advertised and I have as much work as I can handle.
_____________________________
If it ain't broke..... fix it until it is.
GAWDS
Now where did I put that Doctype?
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Nicole
Posts: 2843
Joined: 9/15/2004
From: Nambucca / Kempsey, Australia
Status: offline
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RE: Using Locality for SEO - 7/17/2006 9:15:46
Probably one of the silliest things I did as soon as I started my business was have 2000 business cards made up. Silly because they are designed exactly as my site was back then....terribly, but also with too many contact details on which have changed even though I haven't moved address since.
I had trouble with my mobile phone company just after having these cards printed, take note BobbyD, I defended that phone company with my life as they'd always seemed great and provided cheap rates to international and interstate places, until they refused point blank to re-issue my then current number for business purposes, pleading that I'm a start-up small business only weeks into operation and have just spent $200 to have cards made up with that number on.
So, my business cards were next to useless within a month of starting this business and I still have them sitting in my drawer next to me now. Other contact details are still the same but will soon be obsolete also, but I've often wondered whether it's worthwhile "accedintally" leaving them all over the place, places I go, maybe dropping them on floors, footpaths, lol.
Nicole
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