SEOmoz.org recently conducted a Search Engine 2009 Ranking Factors Survey asking 72 SEO experts their opinions about SEO and to rate more than 100 search ranking factors. Participants were asked to apply the ranking factors to Google’s search engine, although most of the factors a relevant to Yahoo and Bing as well.  As the results show, high-quality, relevant external links with the target keywords in the anchor text still is a major factor when it comes to Google rankings. Click here to read the full report for the 2009 survey.

Top 5 Search Engine Ranking Factors

Wordpress is a terrific web application for stores that want to blog, or want to use it as a website. In my opinion, Wordpress makes the best blogging application and can be a great online marketing tool. It is definitely something that stores should add to their web initiatives.

You can download Wordpress for free (go to: http://wordpress.org/) and install it on your hosting server or use if for free at Wordpress.com. There are literally thousands and thousands of free Wordpress themes, templates and plugins to choose from. You can also purchase even more Wordpress templates for very little money. Wordpress is also very search engine friendly and easy to stores to manage.

Customizing a WordPress tmeplate, theme, and colors, or adding a custom header does require some HTML and possibly PHP knowledge. I would leave that to a professional web designer. A Wordpress blog can be added to almost any website that can run the required version of PHP and has a mySQL database. Or, you could use the free WordPress.com blogs and link it from your main website.

Once it is up and running it is a great place for stores to talk about new products, services, how-to and other help information for the target audience. Anyone within a store can easily learn to post new updates, including images, videos, etc.. You can also setup categories that match your product groups and services so visitors can easily explore other articles you have wrote that are within their interest.

A couple of great places to look for WordPress templates and plugins are:

• http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/
• http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

Or just Google: “free WordPress themes”, or “free Wordpress templates”.

For example, MarketingyourStore.com is a free WordPress template that I have customized to my needs and preferences. It is running on a shared website hosting server and I pointed the domain name, MarketingYourStore.com directly to my WordPress blog. I also link to this blog from the top menubar on WebstreamDynamics.com, my main website.

Matt Cutts from Google gives a SEO presentation at WordCamp. This is long but well worth it to watch. Great tips and ideas from Matt on “How to do better in Google“.

Some quick notes from watching this great video. These things  have been said before by Matt and others but worth repeating again:

• Page Rank – “the number of people (websites) that link to you and how important those links are.“
• The more outgoing links from a page the less link juice per recipient
• Stay on topic and keep it relevant
• Don’t stuff or cram keywords throughout the pages
• Use terms that the target audience would use, not industry jargon
• Optimize the HTML tags and URLS
• Keep content  fresh and updated.
• SE spiders feed on text content, not graphics or Flash

I was reading this article today, titled: Which Internet Yellow Pages Site Has The Best Rankings? and it reminded me that most small businesses never utilize the Internet Yellow Page (IYP) websites to generate more traffic. Most stores don’t even know many of these IYP websites even exist. Yet some of these websites can  generate some quality customer traffic to your website, as well as help improve a website’s link popularity. Some of these IYP websites also have high ranking positions on Google and Yahoo. Shoppers may prefer to click on the IYP’s  search engine listings which send them to the IYP’s website to find their local stores or  service providers. Not being listed there. or an incomplete listing. can cost you valuable customer leads.

I decided to use Webstream Dynamics as my guinea pig to test some of the most popular Internet Yellow Page directories (see above). I knew there was a good chance I did not exist in these directories because Webstream Dynamics has not focused on local business over the past 10 years. With so much nationwide business Webstream Dynamics never used local search to drive new business. Plus, back a few years ago, online local search wasn’t even popular.

Not surprisingly, Webstream Dynamics was not listed on the 4 IYP directories I tried. But, I was able to easily add a free business listing for Webstream Dynamics. I was also able to add a business category,  business description, business hours and more through the IYP’s dashboard (see example below). A pretty cool and painless process. These new IYP listings for Webstream Dynamics costs me nothing and can only help drive new local business to the website.

Below is a list of some of the most popular Internet Yellow Page diirectories services. It is worth your time to check them out and insert your business details or update your existing business details. Be sure to include your street address, phone number, hours of operation and your website address to help drive more targeted traffic to your website. For and additional monthly fees you add more features if you so choose.

• Superpages.com
• Citysearch.com
• Yelp.com
• InsiderPages.com
• YellowPages.com
• BizJournals.com
• AreaConnect.com
• MagicYellow.com
• Switchboard.com

For any small business it is worth the effort to check this websites out and be sure you are listed and that all the contact information (including your website address) is correct.

Here are two of the biggest online business directories that all businesses should make sure their listings are update-to-date, or added too. (The search engines may refer to these as well to confirm listings and possibly help improve local search business ranking positions.)

http://list.infousa.com/dbupdate.htm?Vendor=099842

http://webapp.localeze.com/bizreg/

Google Insights for Search helps provide insights into what the world is searching for. Whether you’re looking to expand keyword lists, analyzing consumer search trends or just looking to see what is popular in search, Google Insights for Search can help provide the answers. Google just added a new forecasting feature for some queries based on an extrapolation of the historical trends and search patterns. Explore search keyword trends over time and geography.

What I like about it most is using it too see trends in keyword searches over time and if certain type searches are more seasonal. You can also narrow it down to specific geographic regions. You can also narrow it to a certain category which helps eliminate other usage of a keyword phrase that you don’t want included in your results. For example: you want winter skiing but not water skiing.

Click image or click here to see an enlarged screen shot

Check out Google Insights for Search.

If you have not heard about Ricko the Rhino and the Mohawk Smartstrand Carpet Challenge you need to go see it right now at: www.smartstrandchallenge.com/. What is fascinating to me from a web marketing standpoint is that Mohawk combined a great product with a magnificent animal that needs mankind’s help. It’s a real win-win and a great marketing idea from Michael Cheek from Mohawk Industries.

Taking it Local

On a local basis, Mohawk Carpet retail stores should be helping get the story out, including linking to the SmartstrandChallenge.com website.  Smart store owners might consider doing some of their own smaller scale promotions as well. For example, maybe network with your local daycare, veterinary office, library, etc.,  and see if you bind up some Mohawk SmartStrand Carpet into a rug and place it in their place of business in a high traffic area for several weeks. Then take the Smartstrand rug  back and clean it up (or half of it) to show potential customers how durable and stain resistant this carpet really is. Maybe even do a write up in your local newspaper, as well as post the news on your website. blog and Facebook telling people about your own local SmartStrand Carpet Challenge and the Mohawk Ricko story.

The point being, use this to become creative in your local community to help market your store and generate more sales leads.

A while back Google added a percentage to the Local Business Center dashboard. Since then I have wondering how a business can achieve 100% score with a listing in Google’s Local Business Center

Supposedly you have to be sure to include hours of operation, payment options, 10 photos, at least 1 video and one line to the additional details. Will achieving 100% in Google Local Business Center give your website an extra boost in local search rankings? Dunno. I will test it will several client sites and my own and see over time what effect it has, if any.

See Google’s Local Business Center if you want more information.

Creating sales events is really easy with Webstream Dynamics’ SiteManagerXL. Our powerful sales event manager makes updating sales events yourself a breeze! I have created a short Youtube video to demonstrate how easy it is to create sales events for stores using our exclusive website Site Manager.

Capturing the attention of your online target audience and then getting them to visit your brick-and-mortar business takes time and extra effort. Here are a few recommendations for small business website owners for 2009:

• Optimize your website and make sure it is easy to use and fulfills your customers needs.
• Optimize all title tags, meta description tags and header tags for each web page.
• Optimize the website text content and stay on one main topic for each page!
• Don’t cram your header tags full of keyword phrases (Title, Meta).
• Don’t use duplicate content – Make your content unique and interesting!
• Make pictures as large as possible for the website and be sure they add value to the page
• Use videos when possible to enhance the user experience
• Consider adding a Blog to your website
• Check existing incoming links for relevancy and add some additional ones
• Get others to talk about online you by using awesome content that users find invaluable
• Make sure all forms work and respond to email inquiries quickly
• Include “Call to Actions” and special offers, be sure they appear above the fold.
• Use the social media channels (Twitter, Facebook) to help connect with potential customers
• Look for off-line opportunities to find new customers and get them to your website

I can’t stress enough about the content. The web is flooded with boring content that appears the same and has no real, exciting value to potential customers. Take the time to make your website standout from others with unique content that will inspire your target audience into action. People are getting tired of the seeing the same things that have little value to them. Once they click their back button they are gone and probably will not return.  All of the things mentioned above can really help improve your websites online search engine ranking positions (SERPS) and targeted traffic will for sure increase to your website.