"I am number one on Google", she proclaimed proudly.

"For which keywords are you number one?" I had to know.

Of course we all know what is coming, "For my name!"

Which is? "Alavedia Vaazteroves."

Sure, that's a silly intro yet it does paint the picture. Unless our very fictitious Alavedia has some celebrity chances are Alavedia Vaazteroves skews very low in Google search results. Which, for the purpose of this very short article, is our only concern.

This will be simple enough for anyone to follow yet complex enough that some more seasoned bloggers and site owners or managers may gain from. The hope is others will share their experiences as well so we may all be elevated. Keep in mind this is a guideline. The techniques are proven and when followed will bring results. It is possible, with enough work, to achieve measurable results without following these steps. Letting Google do the work for you, however, may be better achieved with this method.

There are other methods which may be employed and a true, proven SEO/SEM professional can guide you. This is such a mile high view please don't think this is anywhere near even a decimal of a percent of what there is to learn and understand about the changing world of Search Engine Marketing. Consider this a "thought primer". The full session could easily fill 1,000 pages or more.

We are going to make a fictitious business from nothing to Google ...

Moe's Car Shine
13855 East 8 Mile Road Warren, MI 48089 (real address, fake business)
"Not even the sun can shine your car like Moe's"
Auto Detailing and Security Systems

Step One - Define your market area

Because we are going to be shining cars (selling homes whatever) our real market area will be people who live and work in the vicinity of our location. While I am planning my SEM campaign I also want to know what other well known venues are in the area. I can easily search my market zone by using Google Maps. Having done my business research I know people will not drive more than 3.2 miles out of their way to "try a new auto detailer" for the first time without very good reason.

I am faced with a couple of choices which cross into traditional, guerrilla marketing which this article will not address so I must stick with SEO and SEM to draw prospects from that zone. They will be people who live nearby, work nearby, shop nearby, or possibly travel through.

Step Two - Find the existing, well known draws in the area

By using Google Maps I know I am in the Carousel Shopping Center. I can also identify the other businesses in my center. Using my conventional marketing research I will know which of those is a draw. For the sake of our session here we are going to say "Art Van Furniture" has some draw. We are on East 8 Mile Road 6 blocks west of Gratiot Avenue. Also 8 blocks east of Groesbeck Highway.

Step Three - Let Google choose your keywords

Whether or not you already have a website Google has the tools to get you started.

Now this is where it can get argumentative and, in defense of all points, there are different ways to use this tool which yield results. Without actually setting up a site and tracking search results we are only hoping - but we're also simply learning ways to use Google keywords.

This is the FIRST of two steps we will use (since we don't have a website). We want the top, monthly, local search results for relative keywords. I bet you can guess what they may be. If not here is a hint: auto detail, car wash, auto alarm, warren, car alarm, 8 mile may be a great place to start. 

But wait, isn't this Moe's Car Shine? Should that not be the first keyword? NO. The five people who have heard of Moe's Car Shine loaned me the money to open. They know where I am.

Search on the actual keywords people may use. For intuitive search they may type, "are there any auto detailers on 8 mile road?" Think about search patterns like a prospect - not like your mom. (Sorry mom.) Once you have typed in the keywords and clicked search go ahead and click on "Local Monthly Searches" to put the results in order by number of local searches.

Notice some very pertinent keywords with high results? Those are what we will begin our focus on. In fact, since I have not yet purchased a domain name I will start by searching for a name with any or all of those keywords, "warrenautodetail8milealarms.com". Seriously - that would be one of my URLs. Why? Search engine results.

You can go for brand-able, and I would recommend doing so if you are looking for branding. Most of the readers of this article, as much as they would like to be a huge national brand are really "home for sale". I like brands but the reality of it most of us need generic search results long before we need to be branded. So for that reason it is suggested to us keywords in the domain name. Here's a Matt Cutts video on this exact topic. (If you don't know Matt is sort of a big deal at Google.)

For this experiment I am quite happy with the results because competition is moderate and search results are high. Now for step two I want to look at competition by doing a generic search. For that I am going to access the Google shell and bypass all the browser information my computer would communicate with Google by going to Goosh. That's a mashup of Google and shell by the way. Here is a search result completed for "auto detailer warren 8 mile" [click]

Those are the people I must best to be in that number one slot. Between you and I for even a novice SEO practitioner that's a lay down. However, hold the phone, that's just one generic search result. You need to do it for as many as you can think of that matter according to the numbers at Google. "Yellow tomcat butter cycles" is not your keywords so be reasonable in what finds you in the number one position on Google.

Step Four - start your website and put content in it

Just because you know which keywords to use does not tell you how to use them so here you go:

*There ar hundreds of caveats - this one is for most hard-coded websites.

The title tag int he HTML of your page. Found in the <title></title> section of the <header>. Definitely use keywords here. Be wise about it and remember: Google's algorithm is trying hard to think like a human. <title>CAR WASH - WASH CARS - DETAIL WASH CARS - ALARMS - CAR ALARMS - AUTO WASH</title> probably not so good to humans or Google, right?

The title of your article or the first header on the page. That means something in an <h1> or <h2> for you beginning coders. Yet another Matt Cutts video on a relevant topic. Use relevant keywords in a manner which makes sense to human readers: <h1>New Auto Detailer opens on 8 Mile in Warren</h1>.

In your article of course. Be conservative. You would not want to watch a movie where the actors all said lines like, "Car wash. Detailing on 8 Mile. Warren, Michigan auto alarms. Clean cars. Wax on, wax off." Write natural sounding articles. While it is important to use keywords and you certainly want to pay attention to density it's not a race to see how many times you can pack keywords into your article if you want actual people to find what they are searching for.

Remember looking for other draws in the area? Hopefully you ran a keyword search tool test on those as well. Play up on them. For our purpose you can say, "Drop your car off for a wash and detail while you are shopping at Art Van's Furniture". Heck, tell Art and see if he'll market for you since you're marketing for him. Put a link to his site (outbound links give value when they are relevant).

Step Five - Measure the results and adjust when necessary

All of this work and effort, even from a very precursory overview, means nothing if you have no idea of how it affects visits to your site. While there are many ways to track let's just stay with Google and install Google Analytics. It's free, easy to setup and install, can be very detailed in the way it measures and provides results, and if you can send an email you can install it on your site. Well, maybe with just a little help - which they provide.

Google Analytics (GA) isn't where the rubber meets the road - that happens in your bank account, if that's the way you are measuring success. GA is how to tell if your use of keywords, your placement of inbound links, your purchase of ads, etc., is giving you the results you need or if you need to make adjustments.

Want to know specifics on how to do this for your real estate company with guaranteed results? Call me ;)

http://www.gritechnologies.com/tools/links_poodle.html

http://www.googlekeywordtool.com/

http://www.mattcutts.com

 

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Ken Cook - Community Outreach Leader Southeast Region (I make friends, handle social media, SEO/SEM/SMO that's my job :) - We do FHA, USDA, VA and Conventional Home Loans (678) 439-8683 NMLS ID 208452

My employer: AmericaHomeKey, Inc., 2300 Windy Ridge Parkway, 8th Floor North Tower - 840N, Atlanta, GA 30339. NMLS ID 102930. Georgia residential mortgage licensee 23191. Equal housing lender.