11/04: Googling all businesses in Sale, Cheshire
Category: Sale and Altrincham
Posted by: SaltyAdmin
Do you run a business located in or around Sale, Cheshire?
Can potential customers find your site through Google without knowing your company name or your URL?
Lets say you own a furniture store in Sale - your site probably won't come up if someone typed in "furniture sale" - the big problem faced by any organisation in the area is that sale has another meaning, and much larger companies can afford to throw money at getting their site optimised to top the list.
Of course, your potential local customer base is familiar with this problem, and will probably use the Sale postcode (e.g. "furniture m33") to try to find you.
Try M33 with a keyword for your business - did you turn up on the first page? Or at all?
Search Engine Optimisation - the art of getting your website as close to the top of the results list - is not the black art that some IT consultancies would have you believe (so they can part you from large chunks of your earnings!), but the search engines need to know you exist to begin with.
Here are some simple steps to get started:
1. Register your website with the Open Directory Project (a.k.a. ODP, the Mozilla Directory or DMOZ). This is a free, human maintained, directory used by Yahoo and Google amongst others. Make sure you submit your site to the most appropriate regional category. Here is the one for Sale.
2. Submit your site to Google for addition to the sites they "crawl" periodically.
3. Add your details to SaltyWeb: the Sale and Altrincham Web Directory - this directory site is specifically targetted at the area, and unlike other alternatives (e.g. Yell, TouchLocal etc) it is free to include your website's URL. Register as an advertiser here.
Check back here in the future for more tips.
//James
Can potential customers find your site through Google without knowing your company name or your URL?
Lets say you own a furniture store in Sale - your site probably won't come up if someone typed in "furniture sale" - the big problem faced by any organisation in the area is that sale has another meaning, and much larger companies can afford to throw money at getting their site optimised to top the list.
Of course, your potential local customer base is familiar with this problem, and will probably use the Sale postcode (e.g. "furniture m33") to try to find you.
Try M33 with a keyword for your business - did you turn up on the first page? Or at all?
Search Engine Optimisation - the art of getting your website as close to the top of the results list - is not the black art that some IT consultancies would have you believe (so they can part you from large chunks of your earnings!), but the search engines need to know you exist to begin with.
Here are some simple steps to get started:
1. Register your website with the Open Directory Project (a.k.a. ODP, the Mozilla Directory or DMOZ). This is a free, human maintained, directory used by Yahoo and Google amongst others. Make sure you submit your site to the most appropriate regional category. Here is the one for Sale.
2. Submit your site to Google for addition to the sites they "crawl" periodically.
3. Add your details to SaltyWeb: the Sale and Altrincham Web Directory - this directory site is specifically targetted at the area, and unlike other alternatives (e.g. Yell, TouchLocal etc) it is free to include your website's URL. Register as an advertiser here.
Check back here in the future for more tips.
//James
