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Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a critical part of Internet efforts. The search engines are the first place people turn to find information they need. As a small business owner focused on a local market, how much time do you really have to devote to the ongoing efforts SEO takes? Especially when your looking at a small volume of queries specific to your market.

Keep focused on some key areas and get them right. It’ll help you capture all that you can from the limited source of searches. You also don’t have to be perfect in your efforts. You just need to be a little better than the company that’s in the lead placement. Keeping that in mind will help you focus your efforts.

Local SEO Essential – Google Places

The search results page (SERP) is changing and where you appear on it is as well. Earning the top spot no longer assures you’re at the top of a person’s search result. For local search terms, what often appears in Google is the local directory results from Google Places.

The beauty of listing your business in Google Places is its integration into Google Maps – giving you a presence in both the web and mobile markets. Your business is discoverable by your customers regardless of the device they are using.

I’ve read that 20% of Google searches have local intent, and even more when mobile searches is factored in. For the small business, listing in Google places is essential.

SEO Columbus OH Small Business Keywords

What drives your keyword strategy? It should be your customers.

Analytics for Keywords

You can find out the terms they use to find you in your analytics reports. In Google Analytics, you’ll find it under Traffic Sources –> Search –> Organic.

The details of the keywords used to find you are in there, in many cases. Google is obscuring some of this information so it’s not as transparent as it once was. The “(not provided)” is Google’s attempt to shield the data of users who have authenticated to Google (a rapidly growing number with Gmail, Google+ and a host of services that keep you logged in). The rest of the keywords are from unauthenticated users.

Customer Reviews for Keyword Suggestions

Fortunately, you can solicit comments and feedback from your users. Encourage ratings from your customers on Foursquare, Yelp, Google Places and the like. Then when you read them, pay attention to the words they use as much as what they are saying. The personal side of your business improves when you listen to what your customers are saying. The SEO side of your business improves when you use they same words they do.

Voice Recognition SEO

A coming trend is going to be how easy is it to speak your keywords. Mobile is a driving force in local search and voice recognition is the growing means for searching via mobile. Your customers aren’t always going to type their searches, they are increasingly speaking them.

The Location of Your Community

I used Columbus in the title of this post and in headers of some of the content. Which community was I going after? I could easily have used Dublin, Hilliard, Bexley or any of the smaller cities that make up the Columbus metropolitan area.

As you improve your local SEO, think of the communities you serve or that your customers identify with. Those are the local phrases that will help local prospects turn into local customers because the search engines know where to place you.

Related articles

• Is 2012 The Year For ‘Going Local’! (virtualneighbour.wordpress.com)
• January ’12: Best Search/Marketing Posts (smallbusinesssem.com)

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There’s an interesting read over at Search Engine Land (2011: The Year Google & Bing Took Away From SEOs & Publishers) on what some of the big search providers are doing or not doing, in certain cases, and how they affect the world of SEO. If you have a web site or are interested in discovery over your search ranking, there are some elements of concern.

I’m not going to advocate an Occupy SEO movement or give 99% over to Google and Bing – though combined, they’re market share hits into the 80s if not quite the 99%. It’s interesting the insights you no longer have access to because of adjustments over time, but for those that spend heavily on SEM some of the information remains open up to you.

That’s why competitive markets have a role. Small players come in to disrupt and free the value that is artificially hidden. In search, we have Blekko. Registering for a free account gives you instant access to a host of tools. (Given their No Spam mantra, it’s the first time I’ve registered in a while without undo fear.)

You’ll find a helpful little suite of information for any domain you care to explore. The data and documentation aren’t fully complete. The Help section related to SEO information was last updated in June 2011, about six months after launch. I empathize with their start up position and they probably have  higher priorities to address. Even industry expert Vanessa Fox had a level of difficulty extracting the value of all the data in her comprehensive review, also over at Search Engine Land (Blekko’s SEO Tools: What Information Do They Provide?).

The key takeaways are this. For the near term, the SEO data that should easily be available through the big search engines isn’t. Blekko can serve as a proxy  to this data, but it’s only a proxy until there’s greater understanding as to how close it models the algorithmic behavior of its larger competitors. To pull up a summary of your site’s SEO information, type in a query of “http://yoursite.com /seo” and you’ll get a breakdown of all the information Blekko is providing. For  detailed breakdown of each component, seek Ms. Fox’s article referenced above.

Related articles

• Blekko Is Becoming A Nice Backlinks/SEO Tool (dailyblogtips.com)
• Yahoo Site Explorer Alternatives (seo-hacker.com)

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I have to admit, I’m not easily wowed. I just installed Dashlane (tagline: Sign In and Check Out in Seconds) and I got the “wow” response. I actually ran down and immediately downloaded for my wife as well. As I dive into the product and my infatuation has dimmed, but I remain hopeful this will bloom into a long-term relationship.

Dashlane is in private beta, so I hope that’s the reason behind my biggest gripe. If you like testing the waters of new products, you can register at Dashlane’s web site and get on their beta list. Or, go to Netted, you’ll find a link that will give immediate access to Dashlane. I don’t know if this an open offer, but as of today (Jan 11, 2012) it’s working great.

Dashlane vs. KeePass Comparison

Dashlane streamlines the security process for managing your passwords and logging in. That’s half the battle, right?

We all want the added security of better password management, but the logistics are what kill you. For me, the feature set of KeePass was robust and security measures excellent. As a result it won my loyalty over the past year. No longer trusting the passwords in my browser, I’ve slowly been rebuilding my password database. My wife, who I’ve been trying to get using the product has been slower to adopt. The burden of importing what’s already in her browser is too big a hurdle to overcome.

Dashlane makes this seamless – if you’re on Firefox or Chrome. Which both of us are. It’s an easy import. The Security Dashboard shows your vulnerabilities and since Dashlane automatically logs you in, it’s easy to hit the site and update to new passwords. As a bonus, you don’t have to jump back and forth between the site and the application like I have to in KeePass. In Dashlane, when you update your password on a site, you’re prompted right there with generating a new secure password and it then prompts for your immediate update to the Dashlane client.

I haven’t fully played with the multi-device interface with Dashlane but it appears to be built-in. My MBP, iPad and iPhone all get the benefits of the secure login features. I was able to achieve this with KeePass by installing various versions of the software on each device and synching the KeePass database through Dropbox. It was a hack that’s worked very well, but if this native system is even smoother – I’m really going to like this.

Dashlane Growth Points

The biggest shock I’ve had so far with Dashlane is the memory usage. It’s not as bad as I originally feared, but it will be an area for improvement. Memory allocated to the product after initial install was 3.3GB. If I hadn’t recently upgraded my 4GB to 8, it’d have crushed my machine. To be fair, I didn’t notice performance degradation, but I also didn’t wait too long to test that theory.

Instead, I rebooted and it dropped considerably. It still runs second to my Firefox with its 22 open tabs (yes, I’m one of those). As polished as the product is, I can’t imagine this will remain an issue for long. And I really hope its not. I have a low tolerance for memory hogs, I probably give all that runway to the browsers I abuse. I’d hate for this to be the nagging point that drives me away.

Importing from KeePass will be a bonus when the feature arrives. According to the Dashlane community support area on Get Satisfaction. I’m not sure I’ll completely abandon KeePass, but it will be immensely helpful to have this feature added.

I Know KeePass, and Dashlane, You’re No KeePass

Maybe the primary coverage is getting to me. This is more dramatic than need be. The one thing that jumps out at me is the security of the passwords. They’re much more secure than what I was using pre-KeePass and dead simple to use. But theyre are not up to the standards that KeePass has set.

I’m guessing this is a result of the simplicity they are striving for. I find myself having to dumb down my passwords on a regular basis. (Why do financial institutions offer the least secure options for passwords?) I let the default settings of KeePass be my guide and they do a great job of combining lots of characters, symbols, spaces – you name it and it’s there. Dashlane much less so. It’s an area I’d like to see improvement, but it’s probably not a deal breaker. Until the first hack.

Why You Need to Act on Password Management

It was a little over a year ago that the Gawker hack and this post “Jesus Christ, Use a Password Manager Already” got me looking into password managers.

The quick overview is that there are three basic categories:

• Desktop – stores your passwords on your computers hard drive.
• Portable – For your mobile device whether it’s your smart phone or thumb drive.
• Web based – Online password manager.

Each method has its own strengths (platforms or uses where it excels) and weaknesses (where it’s vulnerable). Each also created additional overhead to access secure sites (cut and paste, authenticate manually).  That’s why Dashlane is so compelling. It removes the overhead and makes a more secure Internet well within grasp.

Lifehacker’s Five Best Password Managers from their Hive Five efforts was run in 2008. That’ll give you an indication of why the time is right for a product like Dashlane.

Happy browsing!

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There’s no shortage of things to do, yet if you’re an Internet marketer – you’re expected to have a well informed opinion on the latest trends. So, what’s the short list of must reads to help with keeping abreast of emerging technologies and best practices.

Daily Quick Read of Latest Tech News

10 Things in Tech You Need to Know is a morning email from BusinessInsider.com with one of the easiest to read snap shots I’ve found for the latest news around Tech. It gives the necessary info in 10 quick hits. I’m informed but not out of a lot of time. Extra credit: If you’re a info junkie or need a few more details in your morning scan of the tech news, head over to Techmeme.com.

Detailed Information for Web Marketing

Hubspot set out to build a killer marketing application and deliver great advice to businesses to help drive more inbound leads, convert a higher percentage of prospects and analyze the data to figure out what works. While I can’t personally attest to how good their app is, based on the business advice they put out it looks promising. For solid overviews of a number of web marketing topics, check out Hubspot’s Marketing Resources. There’s plenty of free content, and you can get more detailed ebooks for some basic information. It’s worth providing your email. You’ll get invited to free webinars where you’ll get the latest information from their research team. It’s a great value add to the online marketing community. Plus, they recently added their Marketing Grader service that offers a quick and free review of your marketing efforts.

For me, the information Hubspot comes out with is at a frequency and level of detail that works well. I’m not overwhelmed with too much, but it’s always timely and substantive.

Ideas and Inspiration for Web Marketing

I’m not always at a place where I can read. So, this recommendation breaks the reading mold, but is a great information source nonetheless. My role with Brand Thunder may also have influenced this. I believe keeping a finger on the pulse of technology start ups will not only provide insights into the emerging technologies that are going to shape our business but also the methods for building awareness and distribution. To take advantage of drive time listening, I download the audio podcast of This Week in Startups. Jason Calacanis brings in top entrepreneurs and investors to share their wisdom, plus answers listener questions and more. It’s a great listen. I’ve been a listener since its beginnings and continue to enjoy it.

I haven’t personally tried any of the other shows in the This Week In network, like This Week in Social Media or This Week in Web Design, but given the quality level of Startups – I wouldn’t hesitate to give them a try.

These are a few of my favorites. I’d love to get others that I should add to the list. Feel free to offer yours in the comments.

Related articles

• Top Internet strategy, marketing and technology links for the week of December 31, 2011 (sazbean.com)
• 30 Top Ebooks to Help You Master Inbound Marketing in 2012 (hubspot.com)