For those that try and keep themselves up-to-date with current events in the SEO world, you already know that SEOmoz is a pretty good authority in this realm. Last weekend SEOmoz sponsored MozCon in Seattle where they gathered the best and the brightest from the industry to speak and provide insight on what they feel are the best SEO practices right now. Here is a summary of some simple tips and tricks that the industry leaders feel can have a large, positive impact on your SEO.
Review and be Reviewed (especially on Google+)
- Within Google+ Local, you do not have to be an individual to review a business; rather, business pages can leave reviews for other businesses. So take it upon yourself to review businesses you’ve had experience with and encourage them to do the same for you.
- Find powerful Google+ account users by using custom searches within Google+. There is an active Google+ community out there and it would serve every business well to seek them out, as they are most inclined to engage and write reviews. To do this, customize a search within Google+ by changing the settings to “people and places.” Possible search terms that would benefit attorneys could be legal news, legal services, or even area specific bar associations. Once you’ve searched, Google+ provides you with a list of active accounts that you can then incentivize to review your firm.
- Google+ reviews are important, but they become even more beneficial when they are considered “useful.” Get your friends and family to “vote” for positive reviews. The more useful they are considered, the higher up they will appear.
Blog Your Heart Out
- Discuss local events and make sure you reach out to the people who are holding the event. Chances are the event holders will appreciate any promotion and will be happy to provide a back link and/or citation from the event site to your blog.
- If you’re guest blogging, you should definitely be including your business name and contact information in the byline. Bottom line, make it as easy as possible for people to find you.
Untapped Resources
- In some states, Pennysavers need content to maintain their lower editorial tax status. Contact your local Pennysaver to see if you can provide content for them and make sure to include a citation at the end of each article.
- You may be listed with many obvious online directories such as City Search, Yelp, or Super Pages, but there is one out there you may not have thought about. The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community is known to provide lists of LGBT friendly businesses on many of their sites. Get listed with them if you want to be on the good side of a growing population.
- We talked about reviews earlier, but go the extra mile and make the process as simple as possible for potential reviewers. Create a “submit a review” page on your site. Should people wish to leave a negative review, this gives them an outlet without publicly bashing your business. On the other hand, if they want to write a positive review, provide them with links to popular review sites (Google+, Yelp, Yahoo!Local, etc.) and encourage them to leave their review there for the world to see.