I’ve been working recently with a few small local businesses, trying to give them some quick and simple tips on getting the websites they have created onto the first page for a few major keywords in their niche. These aren’t my usual gigs and are more me just dropping the odd email here and there saying “Do this”, “Change that” and “No, you did it wrong, try again”. I’m doing these in the main to help out a few buddies with very little in the way of “cash” changing hands so the amount of time I can put in is at a premium.

Photo: Mark Holloway/Flickr

One of the key factors of local SEO of course is citations and we’ve just got to the point in one of the projects where I’m saying, look, you need to go get you some citations. I explain this to my “clients”. Blank faces stare back at me. What I want to go through in this post isn’t your real high end, flashy local SEO, it’s more of the stuff that needs to be done to a new site just to get the ball rolling. If you’re looking for something more upmarket then I suggest you check out these posts on Skyrocket and Anthony’s piece on Cucumber Nebula. If you don’t mind slumming it and getting your hands dirty then stick around, I’m about to light the bum fire. [Read more...]