I am trying out a new tool on this page. Let’s see if it works folks!
You should see a link below that says: “Social Bookmark This Page”. Help FPF test out this free tool created by Ekstreme by clicking on the link and social bookmarking this page. 
Use it! Test it! And if you like it, Get it Here!
Your company name and address should always appear in text on your website. We often see companies who have their address included on their page as an image, or who do not list their address at all. Still others will list their company address, but will use a logo image to depict the name of their company instead of text.
Here’s Why: Local search engines are multiplying like gremlins. The technology behind each of these requires the spider to seek out a physical address for the business in order for that site to be indexed. A search engine spider cannot “read” the address or business name you have on an image. They are looking for text, and preferably in the format below:
Company Name
Street Address
City, State Zip
Phone Number
Fax Number
But don’t take our word for it. Try reading the US Patent Application filed from Mountain View, California (which happens to be the location of Google’s Corporate Offices) titled:
Address Geocoding
Published on August 23, 2005
Patent Application Number 664902
The most notable local search engine today is by far Google Maps (formerly Google Local), which can bring hundreds of high-quality leads to your website if you have paid close enough attention to the next few paragraphs…
Importance of Verifying Your FREE Google Local Listing
Ensuring that your company name and address are properly formatted in text on your website is the first step in getting your website listed on the hundreds of local search engines out there today. However, without verification, Google will not list your website, nor will they provide a description. All the searcher will find is a company name, address and telephone number.
Here is an example of an unverified listing for: Bally Total Fitness
Notice that the main listing does not provide a website or description. You see “References” below the listing, some of which go to Bally’s website and some of which take you to other websites.
Here is an example of a verified listing for: First Page Fitness
Notice that you see only one reference, which takes you to the FPF website. Also notice, most importantly, that you see a link to the website (From Google? Who could ask for a better backlink?) along with a description provided by me that says exactly what I wanted it to say.
Not only do we get a link to our website, a link to our email address and a description of our choice, but we have also verified with the most important search engine in the world that we are a legitimate business with a physical location in the US, not some spam site in India or Africa ripping people off. Do you think that might have an impact on how Google ranks our website? Given that Google goes out of their way (sandbox…) to make sure businesses are legitimate before allowing them to rank, it is highly likely that verifying your physical address with Google Maps has a positive impact on your organic, national rankings on www.google.com.
How Do You Verify a FREE Listing with Google Maps?
That’s the easy part! Click Here to get started at the Google Maps Business Center. You will have the option of receiving a phone call or post card for verification purposes.
Oh, You might also want to check out This Post about how Google Map verification may be impacting Ad Words listings.
Doing a search for Sacramento LASIK, you will notice that Google has listed some locations below some of the ads.
I can only assume these locations are coming from the geo-targeted or radius campaigns, but the strange thing is I was searching from half-way across the country in Colorado. In other words, the listings that I saw were from national-level campaigns!
This is the first I have ever seen or heard of this. Any comments or input will be appreciated.
UPDATE > Upon further investigation and comparison between accounts that do and do not show these locations below the PPC listing, it is our tentative conclusion that these are being pulled in from verified Google Local accounts. Google Local is now Google Maps. Click Here for more information about the importance of verifying your FREE business listing with Google Maps.
Many new health and fitness business owners forget a vital element of their market research report when writing a business plan for a new fitness center, health club, day spa, or any other health and fitness-related business. That element is SEO.
So you are going to build a new website and bring in customers from the Internet. Great - But how are they going to find your website? Search engines are undoubtedly going to be your number-one source of traffic, but only if the searcher can find our website on major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. And without hiring a search engine optimization (SEO) specialist to work with the web designer, it is doubtful that your site will show up on the first page of a major search engine for anything other than extremely specific terms, such as your business name. And if you are entering into a franchise agreement with a major health supplement store or fitness center, your website will probably not even sow up for that.
Even those marketing savvy business owners who know enough to include a budget for search engine optimization in their business plan often neglect to factor in one very crucial Element - The Google Sandbox. This phenomenon seems to be unique to Google’s search engine algorithm. It is a highly debated topic and goes by other names, but the undeniable fact is that Google doesn’t allow new websites to rank for competitive terms as quickly as other search engines, all things being equal.
First Page Fitness has read Google’s algorithm patent applications and tested many new websites against this time-sensitive ranking factor, and it is our professional finding that it takes about six months to one year for significantly competitive terms to begin showing up on the first page of Google. Of course, you don’t have to worry about this with an aged website, but if you have just purchased your domain and are planning to build a new site, your marketing plan should include this element so you and your investors will be prepared for slow beginnings on Google.
The good news is that MSN can produce results in as little as one week, and Yahoo is fairly receptive to SEO within a month or two. This will bring in a steady flow of organic (natural, free search results) traffic while you wait for the veritable fire hydrant called Google to be uncapped. In the meantime, you should factor into your marketing budget a few hundred dollars each month for at least six months for advertising on Google through their Ad Words PPC program.
Remember, the purpose of a marketing plan or business plan is to anticipate what your business will face in the near future, and to draw up a clear plan for overcoming any obstacles. Ranking highly on search engines is a major obstacle, but by factoring SEO-related issues into your business plan, it will at least be one that you have planned for in advance.
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Keyword Density Versus Keyword Frequency
One thing you will often hear from search engine optimizers is “keyword density”. As a general term, there is nothing wrong with this. However, if they are giving you some kind of percentage (i.e. the best KWD is between 5% and 15%) you should probably hang up the phone or delete the email.
On all major search engines we have seen sites rank extremely well for their terms with very low to very high key word density. Why? Because from a search engine’s perspective it makes sense that the page is ABOUT whatever term shows up more times than any other term, regardless of what the “density percent” is.
Search engines only care about the density (as opposed to frequency) of your key words or phrases in relation to whether or not you are trying to spam them. By not worrying about keyword density, and instead focusing only on keyword frequency, you don’t have to worry about this. Why not? Because your only concern is that the keyword or phrase you want to target shows up more times on the page than any other word or phrase - aside from stop words like: and, the, at, a, etc. This is called keyword frequency.
Allow me illustrate this for those who are confused or in disagreement:
Page A has 100 words. The only keyword phrase to show up more than two times is “blue widget,” which appears three times on the page. Now, by all “expert” opinions that is a very low KWD - 3%. But then again, there are only 100 words on the page and it DOES show up more often than anything else.
Page B has 1,000 words. They were told by an optimizer to make sure the KWD of “blue widget” is about 10%. Don’t you think it would sound repetitive if you were to repeat the term “blue widget” 100 times on the same page? If you were a search engine, wouldn’t that seem like keyword stuffing to you?
Instead, what if the next most frequent phrase, “green snazzle”, only shows up 9 times? Then you could rest assured that by using “blue widget” a mere 15 times the search engine would know exactly what the page is about, and you would not have to worry about keyword stuffing, keyword density, or any of the nonsense inexperienced optimizers try to get away with.
Everything You Just Read is Besides The Point. Gee, what a waste of time huh? Well, not really. It provides background for what really matters: Good content. Without trying, an experienced online copywriter will write a page so that the most important keywords or key word phrases show up more frequently than any others. At the same time, it will not be such a high KWD as to risk being penalized for keyword stuffing. Furthermore, it will sound natural to the reader. Focusing too much on keyword density makes a page seem contrived and the writer sound ignorant.
Keyword frequency analysis is best used as a guide for the optimizer to quickly see what a page is about, and what terms they should optimize that page for. Rather than the optimizer bending the copy to meet their needs, they should bend their optimization to match the copy - providing the copywriter has been given the keyword research report and has written with that in mind.
Here is a Keyword Frequency Analyzer that I use on a daily basis:
Mark Horrel’s Keyword Density Analyzer - Don’t let the word density fool you. It can also be a frequency analyzer, and a damned good one at that.
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How to Use Mark Horrel’s Keyword Frequency Analysis Tool: An Example
1. Copy everything above the dashed line.
2. Click on the link above to use the analyzer.
3. Paste the copied text into the “Text:” box.
4. Be sure to sort “by frequency” and “ignore stop words”.
5. Click Submit
RESULTS:
Consider “you” as a stop word that should and would be ignored by search engines unless it is part of a larger phrase. Notice that the top term for this blog entry is “keyword“, followed by “page” and “density“. Close behind are the terms “search,” “frequency” and “words“.
I did not count the amount of times I used any terms while writing this page. I knew the subject I wanted to write about, and I wrote it. This is my first draft - as you can probably tell. Still, given that the most frequently used terms are, in order: keyword, page, density, times, search, frequency and words…
If YOU were a search engine, what do you think this page would be about?
By the way, I feel that the word “density” is already too repetitive on this page, yet it has a KWD of a little more than 3%. Imagine if I took the advise of many SEO “experts” out there and peated that word another 10-15 times to achieve optimal KWD…
