Regional SEO Techniques. How fast do you see the results of your SEO efforts?

[morestar]

Interesting. I knew the following example would be the result. A client asked us to get them found for "(car brand name) sales (city)".

I was asked by my team mates to bring the guy up. I did a little this and that and told them to check the results in two weeks although I knew the effect would be obvious within a few days.

Less than five days later, searching on google.ca for again the search terms "(car brand name) sales (city)" found our client's site in the number 1 position in the SERPS and #3 on google.com.

I'm sure everyone who dabbles in SEO know's getting good rankings in regional searches is quicker and easier than broader searches.

Does anyone have any stories like this where they over-achieved in their SEO campaigns? Where their theory was right and they new exactly what to do SEO wise?


:grin:

[anandnadaar]

Well that's generally much easier than having a generic keyword rank well on Google without any regional criteria.
It is all a game of popularity. The more the keyword is popular the tougher it gets.
I got many sites ranking well for regional keywords but when it came to ranking a generic keyword.. I had to work harder.

[urb100]

Anand is right. In addition to what he said, it is also easy to rank for few days and then slowly go down in SERP in google - known as sandboxing. Watch out for that and don't count your eggs before they are all hatched.

[a53mp]

I always tell clients at least 1 month

[claybutler]

I always play my best hand, but the search engines have the final say. I always get my clients sites to perform better than before I met them. If I wasn't sure I could, I wouldn't take the job. The interesting part is how the same techniques play out from site to site. Sometimes a site will under perform to my expectations (but better than the original baseline) and sometimes it's just crazy good and my client dominates even for non regional generic phrases. The former keeps you keeps you humble and realistic, and the latter makes you feel like a god. I prefer feeling like a god of course.

And like a53mp said. Always say a month at least. You usually see result much sooner but you never know.

[james113]

I'm sure everyone who dabbles in SEO know's getting good rankings in regional searches is quicker and easier than broader searches.

Does anyone have any stories like this where they over-achieved in their SEO campaigns? Where their theory was right and they new exactly what to do SEO wise?


:grin:

I do a little more than dabble in SEO and I have found that getting good rankings for regional search phrases is no different than any other search phrase. It all depends on how many sites are competing for the search phrase in question and the amount of SEO being implemented by the competition.

Since my goal is always the number one position in search results for any given search phrase, I am unable to over-achieve on any SEO campaign. Sounds to me like you implemented an SEO technique without studying the competitors websites to see what exactly needed to be done. SEO without stratagy can be very dangerous.

The time it takes to see the results of SEO efforts depends on when the search engine re-crawls the website in question. I have seen results in as little as an hour.

[NJ]

I once had a client whose brand new site was coming up well on Google for about 4 of her keywords within a week of the site launching. So, immediately she paniced that it wasn't the same for all her keywords. In that case, the immediate success made my explanation of the time it takes seem like a lie!

[morestar]

Anand is right. In addition to what he said, it is also easy to rank for few days and then slowly go down in SERP in google - known as sandboxing. Watch out for that and don't count your eggs before they are all hatched.

Absolutely and I've seen that happen a zillion time. I think the best thing to do after the little result would be to continue working on doing what you did to get them there in the first place. He should stay #1 for at least a few weeks depending on many factors.

It's sort of like a tool to show the client, hey I can do my thing and if you really want results step up!

[morestar]

I always play my best hand, but the search engines have the final say. I always get my clients sites to perform better than before I met them. If I wasn't sure I could, I wouldn't take the job. The interesting part is how the same techniques play out from site to site. Sometimes a site will under perform to my expectations (but better than the original baseline) and sometimes it's just crazy good and my client dominates even for non regional generic phrases. The former keeps you humble and realistic, and the latter makes you feel like a god. I prefer feeling like a god of course.


I'm the same way with respect to not taking the work if I know the competition is going to be too massive compared to what they're willing to pay. If it gets hectic I suggest well Google Adwords and so forth. I can work with that and organic SEO.

I must say I also usually bring a site to better performance except the one time when I started out, I redesigned davcogaskets.com and "promised" I'd rock it for them (a friend (not anymore really))...and it came to nothing. I couldn't even get them to rank for their domain name. I could suppose that was up to Google and their hours of operation, I did what I should but it came to nothing. But now'a days they always turn out better positioned....

To my team-mates I say it'll take 3 days, to my clients I say a few months or less....usually a month....

[morestar]

Sounds to me like you implemented an SEO technique without studying the competitors websites to see what exactly needed to be done....

Really? It seems like that?

Well it sure wasn't. come on now....

[morestar]

I once had a client whose brand new site was coming up well on Google for about 4 of her keywords within a week of the site launching. So, immediately she paniced that it wasn't the same for all her keywords. In that case, the immediate success made my explanation of the time it takes seem like a lie!


Ya I get what you mean. Did you manage to still work on her site?

[johnWorks]

Agreed. Regional searches don't tend to be much of an issue. I just did some sample searches for stuff like "(toyota|honda|lexus) sales (vancouver|toronto)", and results tend to be around 1 million, with many coming up with half that.

Not particularly competitive, nor well optimized. The majority of results didn't even have the phrase in the title tag.

One caveat though. If you were checking your rankings by doing google searches, watch out for personalized results. Sometimes results are skewed for sites you've visited, and they show up ranking higher.

I tend to check rankings by going through a web proxy or rank checker. Not a huge deal, but can sometimes bite you in the ass with a client.

Happened to me once before...

Me: "Yes, Mr. Client. I see you're ranking #1 for that keyword."
Client: "I see us ranking #8."
Me: "Oh."

LOL

[morestar]

lol ya I get the same thing sometimes when im logged in and check the rankings for my dating site, on google.com actually and I'm number 1. I flip for a second...not anymore though...when it happens i just know im logged in or a miracle has happened ; )

[sharonjackson]

Me: "Yes, Mr. Client. I see you're ranking #1 for that keyword."
Client: "I see us ranking #8."
Me: "Oh."

LOL

Hahahaha! You are hilarious. You just made a play out of my recent life!!:p

[Web Res]

I've been having really good luck getting results through Google's Local Business Centre. I'm not sure how that effects general results, but for most generic regional searches the LBC places a map at the head of results and that is a great position to be in.

LBC has some specific steps you can take to improve ranking and the results can start to display within hours. I've had new domains that were in the sandbox for general results, but displayed at the top of results due to LBC. Overtime, the sites then come up for both general and LBC.

In many cases, LBC has enough data on a business to know it's location, but they can be hazy when it comes to knowing the products. LBC brings clarity to that. Since many businesses arent doing anything with LBC it's still a very powerful process. Next year, everyone will be doing it and the results won't be so dramatic. But, you've got to be in it to play.

I haven't been able to figure out how to do that for Bing yet. They must have some LBC type processes, but I haven't grokked it yet.

[noel_x99]

We do a lot of regional optimization. It is much easier. And it seems that it's not just "temporary" placement. Generally we see some fast results that stick.

More than once, I've told my client's, "It's not supposed to work like that". If it happens once, they think you can do it everytime!

[james113]

Really? It seems like that?

Well it sure wasn't. come on now....



Why else would you say this:



Does anyone have any stories like this where they over-achieved in their SEO campaigns?

If you would have studdied the competition and knew exactly what needed to be done to get to the top, why did you feel that you over-achieved with your SEO campaign when the site was ranked well.



Less than five days later, searching on google.ca for again the search terms "(car brand name) sales (city)" found our client's site in the number 1 position in the SERPS and #3 on google.com .

After studying the competetion, you knew you would get #3 on google.com and you refer to it as an over-acheivement. Were you calculating for the #4 spot?

[confettiguru]

Hahahaha! You are hilarious. You just made a play out of my recent life!!:p

I think I'm in the same play. LOL

[nigeltpacker]

James is right; you have to look at the competitors’ websites to see the level of optimisation they have implemented. SEO is like a race. It is not how fast you are running but how fast the competition is running that makes the difference.

Two hours is the quickest that I have changed a client's life in. From obscurity to top five positions for 15 of the 30 key phrases we analysed and determined were commercial. We do not target for high visitor numbers. We work on commercial keywords that bring buyers to the clients’ site. I have clients that have had 700% ROI in 3 weeks and that was with a drop in visitor numbers.

The problem of getting fast results is the client thinks the job is done and wonders why they have to pay a monthly maintenance fee!

[kateperry]

I am trying to optimise for local search - does anyone have any advice or can anyone point me in the right direction as to where I would find the information?

Any help would be much apperciated!

[nigeltpacker]

I am trying to optimise for local search - does anyone have any advice or can anyone point me in the right direction as to where I would find the information?

Any help would be much apperciated!

Kate,

Look at your local competitors. Depending on the industry there is likely to be little local competition. Consider also the commercial terms used. Some one who is in the buying process will type in three and four work keyphrases which will indicate their task orientation. If they are looking for a local supplier then they will use a local land mark such as a town of city name.

Our research has shown that the purchasing user is task orientated and this makes your job easier. Remember it is not about numbers it is about quality.

Have you done some user testing on the site? It is important that even if you get to the top of the search engines it will be a waste of effort if the user gets lost or disorientated when they reach the site.

Look out for my book Internet marketing: How to get a Website that Works for Your Business. There are a lot of answers in there with many research outcomes. It is available fro Amazon.

Best of luck with your project.

Nigel

[check4life]

regional is so much easier. Its simple, the competition is so much less. Even if a regional keyword is very competitive it would still mean that the regional competition X " the amount of cities in the world" would be so much more difficult.

[morestar]

The problem of getting fast results is the client thinks the job is done and wonders why they have to pay a monthly maintenance fee!

I guess the only thing we can do about that is tell them that our efforts are not permanent becauase 1. other websites (that we're competing against) are changing every day and search engines take those changes into consideration when it comes to rankings and 2. the search engines change, so what they rank #1 today could be ranked #8 tomorrow.

Once they know or nod their heads to that then I explain getting them to stick at the top takes a long process (involving several things) and that they're going to still need me for at least 5 hours a week to keep things up and push towards staying at the top.

[morestar]

I am trying to optimise for local search - does anyone have any advice or can anyone point me in the right direction as to where I would find the information?

Any help would be much apperciated!

Well some ways of optimizing for local search are:

.make sure to have the city/province in your <title> tags.

.try to have the city/province name in the description meta tag, even twice if you can make it sound natural.

.try to add the city/province name into the copy as many times as you can by still sounding natural.

. submit the local site to local classifieds and free business directories making sure the TITLE if your LINK in those directories has you City/Province keywords in them.

Those are a few things for local search that work.

And as mentioned, submitting the site to Google's local business centre is also a great way to tell google what your product is and where you live.

[davebarnes]

I love doing "regional" efforts.
I tell my customers: 2-8 weeks. Set expectations low.

So far, the beauty of regional is that the competition is weak.
I have great results with:
hip resurfacing colorado (18+ months at #1)
auto repair 80210
hemorrhoids boulder (20+ months at #1)
porcelain veneers boulder

I have a national effort that sucks.
construction accounting software
and it cost $15+ with Google AdWords to be on the first page of ads

[techiejack]

Soon SEO is going to be BIG industry, as business is going online soon people have to try hard to find a place in the SERP (Search engine result pages). So there is going to be tough fight…….
Jack Smith
Data Recovery Software

[morestar]

Soon SEO is going to be BIG industry, as business is going online soon people have to try hard to find a place in the SERP (Search engine result pages). So there is going to be tough fight…….
Jack Smith
Data Recovery Software


yes and I think the service, SEO services are a recession proof industry too - maybe....