Location 1: A good place to start is in your own backyard. Make sure that you business is on Google maps (Link) You will need to have a Google account, so once you set one up, go into your account and spend some time filling out the online form. It’s very important to use the kind of keywords that prospective leads would use to find your business and services on a Google search.
This SEO tip works very well because when ever someone does a local search (i.e. Web Design Boronia) Google uses it’s map feature to list all the local services in that area. This can lift you above all the competition without spending one single Adword dollar.
You could also ask happy customers to leave feedback on the review page. This may push your listing higher within the location list.

Location 2: Geotags! Ok this is a new one on me, but we are currently testing it out and results are positive. It seems to work in the same way as Google maps, by giving search engines your global position. You will probably get better organic rankings for localized search requests. The theory being that a search for ‘web design’ by someone located in Boronia, will show the same kind of results as ‘web design boronia’. You can get your ‘GeoTags’ from this website by typing in your address.

Location 3: Putting a location within a webpage heading is an easy, yet very effective way to tell Google and potential customers that the information on a page is relevant to their local search. As an example: if I want to sell more ‘Widgets‘ to customers in ‘Boronia‘ then I would firstly add content to the page that refers to Widgets in Boronia and then name the page something like ‘Widgets for all your widget needs in Boronia’.
Now when someone in Boronia searches for local widget or Widgets Boronia, Google will put your Widgets page before your competitors page that talks about Widgets in Victoria.

Google is like a monster oil tanker that takes a very long time to change direction, so don’t expect instant results. You should take a snap shot of where you are on Google today. Test and measure times can be as long as 6 weeks to take effect.

Should you Fire your Website?

So you employed a sales person who just isn’t bringing in the deals you were expecting, maybe they don’t always arrive on time or their appearance just seemed a little….. er… downbeat…. you would have something to tell them, wouldn’t you?
Maybe they are hard to find, even when you looked in all the usual places. Going to their home address, you discover that what they had to say was just a bit dull or even worse, there was a coming soon sign in the window…… well you would fire them…. wouldn’t you?

Your website is often the first point of contact with clients or customers. It needs to represent the very best aspects of your brand, product or service.
Take an objective, unbiased, good hard look at your website and imagine that it’s a person, an employee.

So how did that go? what would you say about your choice of representative? See any similarities to the person in this introduction?

Perhaps you chose your web designer based on price not experience. You wouldn’t hire a top sales person without first looking at their CV and results with other businesses…. would you?
It’s always a good idea to take time to look over a designers previous work and ask many questions about each project. At Avalanche Creative, we offer a free 45min consultation to make sure that both parties are equally happy to have a long term working relationship.

Just like a great employee, your website is a long term commitment that needs to change and grow with your business, so you need to find a creative partner that understands your business almost as much as you do.

“We’re a bit like a great recruitment agency who go out of their way to find you that perfect key member of staff and then continue to train them so you get the very best from them” – Andy Warrington – Creative Director

A well designed and constructed website, works harder and longer than any staff member, at a fraction of the annual cost. Your initial investment needs to be adjusted, directed, updated and developed regularly to get the most back for it, Just like any good sales team.

So…. are you ready to fire your website?

After a Tennessee police department let its website expire, the site was snatched up by Brian McCrary who uses it to gripe about speed cameras. The site shows a smiling cartoon police badge clutching greenbacks. It also posts gripes from those who’ve been caught speeding.

So remember to keep your Domain registration up to date!

In the great 90′s Domain grab, a whole load of Domains were grabbed by web prospectors or Cyber Squatters as we once called them. This has made it much more of a challenge to find ‘Good’ available domain names, but it’s important to know that you spend less to market and brand descriptive URLs.  Remember that you need to appeal to both Humans and Web Robots, so a good web address needs to be memorable, easy to spell, simple to say, hear and read, but most importantly your URL should be descriptive and relevant to your product or service.

Just like any post gold rush, there is always a gem laying around if you know where to look.

“I’m often amazed at some of the domain names that still haven’t been taken and equally frustrated by domains that have, but just sit there with a coming soon notice”.

The key is to do a bit of creative thinking and make a mind map of descriptive terms, and then just test the availability on a domain shopping site. If your a location based business, then narrowing down your search by using the location name i.e. (AvalancheBoronia) will inversely widen up your opportunities.

“Brand creation is a big part of what we do at Avalanche Creative Solutions, we go through a long and painstaking process of name creation and then cross referencing with available domain names as well as Business and Trade mark searches. Sometimes we strike gold and sometimes we have to go back to the creative thinking stage”

Sites like www.godaddy.com offer ‘Domain Auctions’ but this can be initially expensive. Look at premium domains – you will pay more initially but thereafter the cost to renew is exactly the same.

Please let us know what you think about this article