I wrote in an earlier post, about an experiment I’m currently running about local search engine optimization (SEO) in Bozeman, MT. In that post I made some predictions of what would happen after I registered with several national websites that feed local results to search engines.I predicted that the following things would happen:

1. No significant improvement for Google search engine ranking.
2. Slight increase in web traffic.
3. Better inclusion in “local” search results across all search engines.

What were the results of this search engine optimization?

1. Sorta’ true – We were bumped up from position #5 to position #4 for the search term “website development + bozeman, mt“! This was unexpected, as we already have a significant number of back-links to our website using these search terms.
2. Inconclusive – It’s still a bit early to tell whether our web traffic has increased. According to our analytics package there haven’t been any visitors who were referred from any of these directories. I suspect that this is simply because most web users would rather search Google (or another search engine) rather than wade through the category listings of something like SuperPages.com.
3. True! Google, Yahoo, Local.com, MSN Local, BOTW.org… All were very quick to add my free listing. Again, I expect that the back-link is probably more important from a SEO standpoint than the actual listing. However, many of these local directories allow their visitors to rate and post comments about your business. It’s probably a good idea to visit them time to time and see what (and if) people are saying about you. You may also wish to ask your clients to review your business on their favorite website as well.

Digg.com social media marketing experiment

This experiment underperformed wildly! There were only 5 Diggs on the article we we used. Lessons to take away from this:

1. Make sure that your content appeals to a wide range of people if you hope for it to be promoted on social media. Just because it’s important to you does not mean that most people care!
2. Begin to build your network of friends on social media websites. They are probably the quickest way for your article to become noticed and have any chance of succeeding among the thousands (millions?) of others submitted every day.
3. Keep the content short. An amazing photograph, a short blog post, an extremely unique article. These are the types of information that have any chance of making it to the top.
4. The back-link is still important though! There’s no reason not to submit your article to sites like Digg.com. It provides a valuable link back to your website using the keywords contained in your headline. However, do not expect it to be picked up and generate thousands of page views.

Well, that pretty much concludes this quick experiment. Thank you to everyone who assisted me and left kind comments! If there are significant changes to this experiment, I’ll add a quick post down the road!

I’m running a few experiments that some of you may be interested in. The first is in regards to getting your business to rank well for local or regional searches. Searches like “website development + Bozeman, MT“. Currently, Manifest Creative ranks 5th for this keyword search on Google.com.

Following the excellent advice of search marketing guru Rae Hoffman, in her excellent post entitled “Before You Launch that Local Small Business Website“, I’ve begun to register our website with each of the free directories that she recommends. I’ll keep each of you posted on the final results, both from a rankings and web traffic standpoint.

Due to the fact that we’ve not created any new content, nor have we optimized any of our pages for these keywords, here is what I suspect will happen:
1) No significant improvement for Google search engine ranking.
2) Slight increase in web traffic.
3) Better inclusion in “local” search results across all search engines.

Many of the websites that I registered with feed other search engines such as Ask.com and Lycos.com with local/regional search engine results. The local results are the listings that are displayed before the traditional results when you search with a regional keyword (see screenshot below). Many search engines also include a map.

So why is this important? Many of us are selling our products, services or other goods to others within our own locales. Many internet users are getting more specific about what they search for. Most of us know that if we search Google.com for “car dealerships“, we’re not likely to find what we seek. However, if we search for “car dealerships in Bozeman, MT” we’re much more likely to find relevant results.

Additionally, since these local results are often found above the traditional organic search results,  they are even more valuable for their top of mind awareness. Besides, since back-links are one of the most important aspects of search engine optimization, it is never a bad idea to have an additional link back to your website.

One last experiment – one that you can help with!

I’ve submitted the Western Art & Architecture magazine article “Green By Design” to a social bookmarking website called Digg.com. For those of you unfamiliar with the site, the general idea is that you submit a link or story that you like. Others who like the article you’ve submitted Digg it as well – thus voting for it. The more Diggs a page receives, the higher in the rankings it moves – generating more website visits.

I am hoping that each of you will take just a moment to visit the following address, and if necessary, register with Digg.com to vote for this article. When you’re on the Digg.com website, you can see how many times it’s been dugg by looking at the icon to the left of the headline. Feel free to leave a comment about the article too on the Digg website – that way I’ll know to add you to my friends list!

Here’s the link:
http://digg.com/environment/Green_by_Design_2

I’ll report back to each of you to tell you about the results, and perhaps we’ll all learn a thing or two about the power of social media!