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Recently Google’s released a major algorithm update for the local search function (AKA Pigeon Update) and whilst there isn’t much press around it yet; webmasters all over the US are reporting changes to their local rankings.

In this day and age SEO is no longer just about getting on the 1st page of Google. Unless it is a navigational search query you want to make sure that your campaign is performing at optimum level as you will be competing with nine other search results. This is why it is so important to implement basic SEO practices and efficiently manage them to rank well and attract relevant clicks. Here are some SEO tools that I thoroughly recommend to improve the productivity on your WordPress site.

As a business owner, regardless of industry or targeted client base, anyone would agree on the benefits of having a physical shop front or office. If this shop front is well staffed, well maintained and in a good location, then clearly foot traffic will come into the store, giving your staff the opportunity to make sales and/or generate leads. The better the location, the greater the volume of foot traffic. The better your staff, the more sales and leads (not to mention the quality of these) will be achieved. All fairly simple stuff isn’t it?

Over the past few years there have been a lot of speculation on whether social signals from sites like Facebook and Twitter and even Google Plus factor into Google’s search algorithm. Do things like the number of Facebook “Likes” , Twitter “retweets” and Google +1s have a direct impact on how you are ranked on Google Search?

Ever since Google released their Penguin search algorithm update there has been the potential for someone to hurt the rankings of someone else’s website. Penguin looks for spammy links to a website (a good indicator that someone is doing cheap and nasty SEO) and drops the Google rankings of that website as a penalty for black hat SEO practices. Negative SEO, also known by the slightly more dramatic term “Link Assassination”, involves actually purchasing large numbers of spammy links for a competitor in the hopes that Google will penalise their rankings.

An unfortunately common misconception amongst those who engage in SEO is that it is not an ongoing concern. Too many people think that once you rank, you rank. This is simply not the case.

Fiction #1: The more rankings the better. Fiction #2: Rankings = Business. Perhaps I should clarify here a little. The above points don’t have to be fiction. But whether or not they are depends entirely on you.

A successful SEO campaign is like a bus full of customers. But while that bus can drive customers to your store (website), what happens once they get there? Are they able to get the service they need right away? Do they have all the information they require? Is what you offer clearly laid out?

Let’s dive straight into Part 2 by defining a couple of different types of conversions. Generally from an SEO standpoint I tend to use the word conversion to mean lead, so an email or phone call which is a direct result of the SEO work. This is when a potential customer searches a keyword, finds
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Fact: Too many people engage in SEO without a full understanding of what they can really expect from it and what constitutes a good result. This blog series will focus on what constitutes a good result and how to plan for maximum return on investment. So let’s get started with Part 1: Keywords!