Time for another post, it's been a few months but I wanted to share a little something I learned that is increasing traffic to some of my clients websites as well as mine.

Have you heard of Drop My Link, a great site where you can Google queries to find thousands of sites to drop your links on and create backlinks.

There is a Drop down list that displays various networks where you can add relevant links "without spamming" . These networks are:

• .edu blogs
  
• .gov Blogs
  
• Anchor Text In Comment Blogs
  
• Angela's Backlinks
  
• CommentLuv Premium Blogs
  
• Do Follow Comment blogs <---Good for PageRank
  
• Expression Engine Forums
  
• Hubpages - Hot Tubs
  
• KeywordLuv Blogs
  
• LiveFire Blogs
  
• Intense Debate Blogs
  
• Squidoo Lenses - Add To List
  

If you are using Google Chrome you need to download the SEO Status Pagerank/Alexa Toolbar extension. and the official Alexa Extension.

Using the Official Alexa Extension allows you to see how much traffic is going to a particular page in the Google's organic listings as seen in picture below by the blue bar. Note I used the "Do Follow Comment Blogs" Query in the Drop Down Menu.

As you can see the benefit of this is based on the amount of traffic so your link can be seen, unfortunately it does not tell you the Pagerank of that particular page so I rely on the SEO Status Pagerank/Alexa Toolbar when I click through the link. While it can be beneficial and relevant to place your link here, the Pagerank is 1 as I clicked through and I'm looking for that juice to flow through to my page so I click back and sift through the search results till I find a good balance of Alexa rank and Pagerank.

The only thing you have to do is leave a relevant comment that correlates to the page your linking to. I like to leave at least 3-4 sentences and thank the author for the great information provided.

Dropping your link on .edu and .gov blogs are good for Authority and search engines tend to see them as more important for the accurate and abundance of information.

Last but not least the page I'm linking to should have the keywords in the page name, title, description, and content. its good to bold some of the keywords and have some internal links that correlate to those keywords.

I love to watch Rands WhiteBoard Friday videos. In this one he discusses how mobile SEO can help your local business even if it is non-mobile. Listed below is the picture of the Whiteboard Break-Down.

I talk allot about Local, Mobile and Social Search, but without Mobile SEO your rankings can really be affected in the organic listings of Local SERP's. Following these simple guidelines will ensure your mobile site getting ranked on the first page of every major search engine.

Listed below are simple steps you can implement in your website so your customers can find your products and services from any mobile device.


NAP. Name, Address and Phone Number is one of the most important pieces of information you can add to a web page. This is self explanatory why you need this, however with mobile devices they can click on your phone number to call you from their mobile device, this is called a "call to action". I recommend adding the NAP to the footer in your website so it shows on all pages.

Responsive Website Design. This is how your website renders your content on mobile devices. Having a responsive site ensures that your visitors are served content that is readable, properly displayed and easy to navigate. Most Content Management Systems do this automatically for you, however you may need to implement a script. Here is a link to learn more: Mobile Redirect Script

Geo-Tags. Geo tagging your website and pictures allows your location to show up in search results when someone searches from a mobile device. You can implement Latitude and Longitude Geo-Code in Schema so it can be properly recognized by search engines. Picasa also allows you to Geo-tag your pictures. to learn more visit here: Geo-tags for local Businesses

Pictures and Video. Some mobile devices do not support flash. If you have flash content you can use HTML 5 standard tags to embed the video. I recommend staying away from flash as it slows down the page load speed. It is recommended that a page should load within 1 second on a mobile device depending on your connection. Pictures can be Geo-tagged using Picasa (link above). Pictures should have alt-image tags with proper descriptions of products and services preferably with location in the description.

Short-tail Keywords. People searching on mobile devices generally tend to put in keywords that are shorter in length as it takes more time to type on smaller devices. Put these short-tail keywords in the meta tags, header, body and footer.

Sitemap. Add a mobile XML Sitemap to your website. This gives page Hierarchy telling search engines which pages are more important and also allows for easier indexing. You can add a Mobile Sitemap here: Mobile Sitemap Generator

Maps. I prefer to use Google Maps. Make sure your pin marker is on the correct address. You can embed the map into any given web-page using a snippet of HTML code provided to you. You can add your business to here: Google Maps

Socialize. Add a social sharing widget as well add the links to your social networks. The more people that like or recommend your pages increases the links pointing to your mobile site in return helping to improve the rankings for your website in the organic listings. Social search is being integrated into search results so sharing your content and posting to your networks will send important social signals thus helping to increase your mobile website rankings.

Resources: To learn more about Mobile Website Guidelines please visit Google

User Intent, this is what the search engines love and they crawl every page out there in cyberspace looking for great content to index that matches a specific search query. 

Search marketers and webmaster have been doing keyword research and adding them as needed in their SEO strategy for a long-time now and while keywords are still needed why not change those keywords into (Search Query Keywords) or (Key Phrases) based on users intentions. There are two specific user intentions i'm going to focus on;

• Informational-Most queries are informational based (Looking for a product or service)
  
• Transactional-Queries are more specific and lead to a transaction(Buy product or service)

Informational queries can lead to transactions, that is why it is important to optimize each page for these two types of queries. Below we will take a look at the steps on how to optimize your site for these types of search queries. Feel free to copy and paste, just insert your own information.

First-Lets add those (Query Keywords) in the Meta-tags. Take a look at an example for the search query "How much does a home security alarm system cost":

<title>Alarm Packages</title>
<meta name='description' content='Our home and business security alarm system packages are tailored to fit your individual needs with no cost and free installation' />
<meta name='keywords' content='How much does a home security alarm system cost,cost of home and business alarm systems,buy home security alarm system' />


How to find informational and transactional search query keywords:
There are many keyword programs out there. I like to use:

• Google's Adword keyword Tool gives you good data on the number of searches performed and how competitive the keyword is.
• Google Analytics allows you to paste some code into your pages and Google will track the visits, where they come from, what keywords and phrases were queried to find your pages and so much more.
• Using your own CMS (content management system) or your own analytics software you can analyze and study where your website visitors are coming from.
  

The next step is to add image tags to your photos, this is know as an alt-tag and adds a description to the image. Check out the image above there is a description below it and when you scroll over it with your mouse you can see alternative text.

Next you want to add user intent search queries into the web copy of your page in the header, body and footer. You can bold the keywords to make it stand out. Make sure the content is well written and descriptive.

You can add user intent keyword links to other pages that correlate with the current page and site. When you socialize your page be sure to create back-links with the chosen keywords and add a description.

Next I would head over to Schema Creator and add micro-data for products and services. Micro-data markup enables search engines to understand information on web pages and provide more richer search results in order to make it easier for users to find relevant information on any given webpage.You can add user intent queries to the descriptions of the micro-data.

Geo-Tagging your products and services help with local search for mobile devices. Here is a Geo-Tag Generator that will automatically produce the code for you to copy into the HTML of a web page.

I hope these basics of User Intent SEO can help your bottom line. Just remember to think and act like a consumer asking search engines questions. Add those questions and answer them in your web copy. Socialize them on Google+, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter etc. Make great content that is informative and leads to a transaction by making the call to action easy to find and simple to execute.

If you are a small local business, you might have heard about the strong benefits you can enjoy from local SEO.  However, you might not have the marketing budget available for such a service, or feel that you want to give a go yourself, first.


Using the experts is definitely the best way to have the best local SEO results, but there are a number of things you can do yourself if you fall into either of the above descriptions.
If you have more time than money, carry out these actions to make your website a hit in your local area.

The Website

It is very easy to get lost in making sure your site is optimised and uses keywords and meta tags effectively, but the first thing to do is to simply concentrate on ensuring that you site is as clean, welcoming, and user-friendly as possible. The design should be slick, and the content clear and concise.

Your attitude to your website should be to have as much content as you need, but no more than is necessary. Remember, you’re a local business, not a Fortune 500 company.

Once you’re site at the right standard, you can start to focus on the local SEO aspects.

Get Listed

Once you’re ready to go you need to start seeking out those online business directories. Google+ Local – formerly Google Places – is your natural starting point, but you should also look at Bing, Yahoo, and other online directories such as Yell.com in order to list your business. Search out local business directories, too.

Include as much information as you can in these listings, including address, contact details, location, and anything else that you might be asked for, such as your industry or target market.

This sounds easy, and it is. However, you should take time and be very thorough, checking all spellings are correct and that all information matches on each directory. If you make a mistake at this stage, you could do yourself serious damage.

Get Reviewed

You cannot control what your customers say about you, so it is your responsibility to ensure that you are delivering excellent products and services so that any reviews are positive. Google, in particular, will give preference to businesses that have been subject to a number of reviews. Word of mouth is a great way to bring more people to your business. Ensure that everything written is positive; direct your happy customers to Google+ Local to review your business and attract others.

Use Schema

Head across to schema.org and you will find some great tips for making your website even more visible in the eyes of search engines. This is a perfectly legitimate thing to do, and best of all, people looking at your site won’t know you’re doing it unless they have viewed the source code.

Focus on your location, and watch your local search ranking soar!

Keep It Up

Ensure that you maintain a blog and a social media presence so that you are a ‘live’ entity online. Most of what you do will have an impact on your search visibility, so ensure you use your time to best effect and feel the benefits without paying out for a local SEO partner.

This Article is our first guest post here and was brought to you by local SEO specialist Bright Local.
Brightlocal offers 6 local tools currently and provides a service free for 30 days.

• Local Search Rank Checker
• Local SEO Check-up
• CitationBurst
• CitationTracker
• ReviewBiz
• Google+ Local Wizard

I love helping Local Businesses find new ways of increasing their bottom line. With Social Media and all the data-mining tools out you can market till your hearts content. I have allot of local businesses that follow me on the various Social Networks and they e-mail as well call me asking many questions  from Marketing to SEO. 

Since I usually blog about my local market that I live in which is less competitive as its a small area, I would help out a Local follower and their business in a more populated area in a more competitive industry. One of my new Followers on Twitter is Jason Brusewitz @BranchOutShrubs and I immediately took a look at his website: http://www.branchoutshrub.com/ 
He is in the Shrub Trimming/Landscaping Business and it looks pretty competitive in his local market.

He is on the Right Track Socially, However I do not see any link for Google+ or any +1 button. He has A Google+ Business page located here Branching Out. See my post on Increasing Citations using Social Analytics and Strategies on how to data-mine Google+ and Facebook. Increasing the Citations helps boost your local business rankings in the serps with Social Integration. I also recommend adding Authorship to help increase the CTR's and give more credibility.

I'm going to use a couple of social data-mining tools (Followerwonk & All My Tweets) for the tools  too help boost his bottom line by finding personal advocates that will spread the word socially and help his business out in the search rankings.Props out to Anthony Pensabene for showing me these tools in some of his guest articles on various blogs.

Lets check out his rankings in Google. I chose "Landscaping Woodbury, MN" as its a more competitive search term and not as targeted as Shrub Trimming.
You can see his business does not rank on the first page for the query at hand.
I suggest Adding Geo-Tags to his website and pictures, also adding Alt-Image descriptions to every picture, I think I found 3 on his home-page that did not have any.
Add a Video to YouTube and link it to home page as well upload it to your Google+ business page. 

Now that a little basic SEO is done, we can focus on data-mining to find personal advocates to spread the word and increase his links from social networks and websites to improve his local business  ranking in the organic listings.

The first tool we are going to use is Followerwonk, this cool tool lets you analyze twitter Followers. Click on the tab for Analyze Followers and put in his Twitter handle. Next in the drop-down menu select "Analyze Their Followers" and give it a minute to populate all his followers. Since I'm looking for Local Advocates you can click on the Map and Zoom in to his local area and see who is following him.
There is one Follower in St. Paul and two outside of Minneapolis. I click on the 2 and chose Tim Ryan @SeamusPicMcGee and clicked through to twitter.

Tim Ryan has a website he can add a link too, He tweets allot and has a good amount of followers.

Using AllMyTweets we can see Tim also Mentions @BranchOutShrub.You can search using Ctrl+F.

I would Thank Tim for the Mention and ask him for a citation on Google+. Offer him some services at a discount, and he may just tweet about it again or share on other social networks.

From here you can go back to Followerwonk and analyze his local followers and find ones that have the greatest clout and influence to spread the word.

There is much more data you can dig into by using these tools. I would say a few times a week he should reach out to past clients and potential clients using these social tools to thank and ask them to spread the word. Social links will follow helping boost his rankings in as little 3-6 months possibly sooner.

Use the Map in Followerwonk to target local followers and engage with them on all social platforms. Use AllMyTweets to search the tweets of followers if they have mentioned other services you may provide.

Become the expert, share and re-share on Google + and other social networks, while staying in contact with your followers by engaging in a timely manner.

I hoped this help a little in helping out your Bottom line, this is tested, tried and true!

Google Mobile Sites allow you to build  local business sites that are optimized for mobile devices. The Templates you can choose from are:

• Restaurant
• Local Business
• Lead Generation
• Social
• eCommerce
• Custom
  

Name your Local Business Mobile Website. The name cannot be more than 32 characters long as this is going to be part of the URL.

Write a short description and choose from over 50 themes. You can also customize a theme so it matches your main business website.

The next thing you may want to do is add your logo to the mobile site. Under the More button there will be a drop down menu, scroll down to Manage Site and click on it. You will see this screen.

Under header you will see an option for "change logo" click on that to upload a logo or to enter a website address for your logo.

You can use the New Site layout editor to customize your

• Header
• Horizontal Navigation
• Sidebar
• Custom Footer

These options can be turned off. I would leave them all off except for the header as you are building a fast responsive mobile local business website

Monetize Your Local Business Mobile Website with Adsence.
If your Mobile Website is lucky to have enough visitors you can monetize it with Mobile Adsence. Google automatically has Responsive Ads that displays relevant links and are not intrusive to mobile users, however links are large enough to click with your fingers.

Having Mobile Ads that go with your mobile design and that are responsive like your mobile site makes it better for the User as they fit with your content, and add more options for the user.

Now we need to add Analytics and Webmaster Tools to your mobile site to measure where your visitors are coming from, what devices are being used to search with, and Mobile Search Query Terms used to find your Local Mobile Business Website.

Webmaster Tools allow you to optimize your website using various settings, and allows you to fix any error's search engines may find when they crawl your mobile site.

In Webmaster Tools you can have your Mobile Business Website indexed faster by Dashboard-Health-Fetch as Google. Click the button next to fetch and select "Mobile: Smartphone" from the drop down menu.

Leaving the URL field blank will fetch the homepage of your mobile site, This mobile website was fetched on 10/15/12 4:16 PM. Tomorrow I update this post with a screenshot of the Page to see how fast it was indexed.

Social Sharing. Right now Google allows you to add the +1 Button to your website. Social Sharing and Click Metrics are going to be playing a big role in Search Engine rankings,and I believe this to be true as Social Integration with Citations and Authorship is already being displayed in the organic listings

You can add the +1 button by click on: Edit Page-Insert-+1Button

Edit the rest of your content using the Mobile Content Editor. You can add in Links, change Font, Colors and Google gadgets

Google gadgets can be added from the drop down menu under Insert. To edit your gadget like a call to action click on the gadget then click on the sprocket icon. Call to actions are very important and provides more information like click to call and Maps.

Everything is lined up in the middle of your Mobile site, this makes it easy to display on mobile devices, Takes less time to load. You can see the Mobile Business Website here: Bullhead City & Las Vegas Website Design.

This website already is a responsive website for mobile devices, I just wanted to give Google's Mobile sites a try  and have it act as a hub-page to analyze and optimize it to see where I can place it in the rankings. There are allot more options available to choose from using the different site designs depending on your niche. I just have to link it to 'Google+', 'Google+ Local' and other sites for further of-page optimization I used a Geo-Tagged Picture and will maybe add a Video to it as well.

Any suggestion, Questions or strategies used? let me know in the comments below.

I was reading an article a month or two ago on how high the percentage is for mobile ads that get clicked on, however the conversion rate is very low. Then I realized what was happening as I constantly found myself clicking on mobile banner ads accidentally as I was browsing the web or playing a game with in-app advertising on my Samsung Galaxy S.
I constantly Search Google and use the Auto-Complete feature allot and use it to check out the SERP's on my mobile device for some of my local clients products and services. Most of the keywords I searched for were only 1 to 2 words long as the Auto Complete feature populated the best keywords for the query.I came up with a list of these mobile keywords

You are probably wondering where I'm going with this right? Well For one of my Local Clients I started optimizing their Google Adwords with Mobile Ads using these keywords and of course Geo-Targeting them. In their Local Business listing on Google+ I optimized their Posts, pictures and descriptions with the keywords optimized for Mobile Search. Notice how many impressions in the picture to the right, there was a total of 355 impressions and exactly 157 calls to action most of them for driving directions and more info on maps

This tells me that most people are searching for local products and services with their mobile devices, as you can see my local client Furniture Closeouts on Google is in second place for the Maps Listing. The first place listing is for a business that moved to another city in Arizona. They also have their own website they can optimize as where my local client does not. it is possible to optimize a local client using Google+ Local and have them rank high in the Organic Listings even with-out a website of their own.
As for the Mobile Ads there was a slight increase in the clicks for the past month. I need to do more optimizing and I will see what happens.
If you have a Local Business Start optimizing for Mobile Search with shorter keywords instead of Long-Tail as the Auto Complete feature shows these more and it seems that is what people are clicking on.

How To Get Your Pages indexed Quickly In Google. Follow these 3 quick easy steps

1. Go to Google Webmaster Tools
2. Look for the Health Menu in Left Navigation and Expand the Menu then Look for Fetch As Google
3. Click on Fetch as Google and put the URL of the page and hit FETCH

That's it just wait a little bit for your page to be fetched and indexed quickly in the organic listings of Google search Results.
By "Shawn Lippert"

The Panda Update was launched on February 24th 2011 and was known as the (Farmer Update) because  people published dozens of low-quality, keyword stuffed articles, or their site was rife with spelling errors, duplicate content etc.  Google went page to page on a given site and if it thought there was significant spam it devalued the site.

The Penguin Update launched on April 24 2012 and according to Google "Penguin is an important algorithm change targeted at web-spam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violating Google’s existing quality guidelines.” This effected sites that used link farms, has to many backlinks with the same keywords etc.

Local Search
Local Search has gone Social and Mobile, integration of Maps and Mobile Search into Smartphone devices, Tablets and Vehicles through applications are skyrocketing. More people are using their Mobile devices for online access every day and this trend will continue to grow for years to come. If you are looking to drive more foot traffic to a brick and mortar store or increase the visibility of your brand, optimizing for Local Search is the right move for search engine rankings and conversions.

So what do we need to do now to make sure we clean up our sites and gain back our Organic Rankings? This is the question I get constantly emailed and phone calls on every day.

First create a link report to see what sites and keywords are used to link to you with. Here is a Tool called Open Site Explorer that will do that for you. Visit those sites that you do not want linking to you anymore and email the administrator or webmaster asking if they can remove the link pointing to your site.

Second is to do on page and off page Search Engine Optimization, then submit a webspam re inclusion form (Link at bottom of post) to Google.

There are two important factors here we are going to look at, On-page and Of-page SEO. I know you have heard about this before and I'm probably sure you know how to do this but after the Penguin update there are a few tweaks you must add to these factors in order for you to gain back your Organic listing in the SERP's

*Update, Here is a Video called "SEO for Startups in under 10 Minutes" by Maile Ohye a Developers Tech Lead at Google.

On-Page Search Engine Optimization

• Title Tag
• One of the most important factors in on page Search Engine Optimization is your Title Tag, put your keywords before your brand name or Location, when someone uses those keywords in a search query, Search Engines show a snippet of The title, description, and those keywords are highlighted in the results. For Local Search it is much easier to rank for popular keywords with your address in the title.
• Social Integration
• Social Buttons are a form of a call to action. When someone shares your page or post on Social Networks, the Link to your site generally has the Title of that page with those keywords.
  
• Context
  
• Context in a page matters because some words have multiple meanings and with Google's Knowledge Graph  and Bing's Entity & Social Search Integration Search Engines are getting smarter so word Meanings and Intentions play a greater role.Your keywords and keyphrases should be spread out about 5-7% in your web copy with nice paragraphs that explain your niche market. I would say no more than 2-3 keywords per page as well
• Keyword and Keyphrase Variations
• Use variations of your Keywords and Keyphrases, Use them in different sentences spread out through your site or the page you are trying to optimize. Variations tell Google and Bing that your content is relevant to the topic and not just keyword stuffed.
• Fresh Content
• You always want to add fresh content, update old pages or even add new pages. Fresh content lets the search engines know the site is being maintained and kept updated.
• Keyword Density
• According to Google Keyword Density does not matter, however if you look at most of the top ranking sites for their niche keywords, they have a density around 5-7% You can check out the Keyword Density with this tool: Keyword Density Tool
• Semantic
• Supporting text for your keyword or keyphrases is important for search engines and readers as well. Search Engines use Semantic Search to determine what keyword or keyphrase you searched for and what that page is about
• Pictures
• Include at least one picture with a description and use the alt image tag with either your keywords or the keyword describing the picture. We live in a visual world and pictures make your content stand out. Search Engines read pictures by their supporting text and alt image tags.
• Call To Action
• Use links in your web copy for call to actions to other pages or your services. What is the use of providing good content and just have your visitors leave without them knowing more about what you have to offer.
• Contact Info
• Your business name, address and phone number on the Main page is one of the most important factors in ranking your page higher in the search engines organically for local searches.
• Internal Linking
• Search Engines use internal links to determine what the site is about and determine the relationship between pages. Internal links have Anchor Text with keywords and description of the page that correlates
  
• Site-Map
• For your readers Site-Maps offer a easy way of finding your pages and gives your page structure. For Search Engines Site-Maps give page hierarchy and lets search engins know all the pages to your site so they get indexed.
  

Offsite Search Engine Optimization

• Link Building
• Link Building is one of the major factors that search engines use to rank a website in the organic results. Link Building helps create brand, Authority and credibility. Link should come from sites that correlate with your site and from sites that have high authority. Link should be natural and dripped out over time
• Authority Links
• You want sites that are popular and that have good page rank  to link to your site. Authority sites give better credibility and can drive allot more traffic to your site. Search Engines see these types of Authority Links and rank your site higher in the organic results because Authority sites are trusted and usually have been around  a while. Write the webmasters or website administrators and ask for a link. They may be interested in a Link Exchange. Search Engines like Google and Bing are adding Authority Links to organic listings, Google+ Search Your World uses the Authorship Tag and Bing shows "People Who Know". Authority Links give better credibility with a picture and help increase the click through rate.
• Do Follow Links
•  Links that are do follow pass on Link Juice or Page-Rank. These types of Do Follow Links coming from Authority sites share this juice and search engines see that the links pointing to a certain page must be relevant and important
• Social Links
• Links coming from Social Networks are a word of mouth link. People care enough to share your content and spread the word. Social Links are targeted and contain Keywords and a description of the content they are linking to. Social Networks are including Local Search into their Network and Applications and as well including them in Organic Listings. This is why putting your keywords or keyphrase in the title tag next to your address or brand are important for local search.
• Correlating Links
• Correlating links is one of the most important factors in offsite search engine optimization. You want sites that are based on the same subject or niche  to link to your site. Search Engines read these correlating links and follow them, its kind of like saying here is more information based on what you were just looking for so come check it out.
• Anchor Text
• When building links make sure your Anchor Text is the keyword or keyphrase you want to rank for that links to your main page or any page you want to rank higher. Add a description to your Anchor text to add further correlation.
• Link Variation
• Use keyword variations in your Anchor Text. People tend to search using different terms, Link Variation gives your keywords a chance in ranking higher for multiple keywords. Search engines will consider it link spam if you have the same Anchor Text plastered everywhere linking to your site.
• Blog links
• Links coming from blogs are generally correlated as they have something to do with a certain niche, usually you can see these Blog Links in a blog roll in the sidebar of a blog. You can add links using keyword or keyphrase variation and leave a useful description in the comments. Add value to the comment!
• Forum Links
• A Signature link  in your profile gives credibility, allot of forums let you include this right away, however you may not be allowed to add links in comments till you have been active in the forums posting in threads.
• Directory Links
• For local search Directory Links are a must. Local Directories like YP.com, Manta, Yelp, and Google Places list your brand name with address and your keywords. Search Engines and Social Networks are using these directories and maps in their network and applications.
• Video & Photo Links
•  Video and Photo sharing services like You Tube, Chill and Pinterest allow you to add your address and keywords in the title of a video with a description, People can share, like and re-pin potentially turning viral creating lots of targeted links

Follow Up Form
After you have cleaned up the site using the Search Engine Optimizations guidelines above use the following Form from Google to explain what you have done and give an example of your efforts.Here is the link to the  WebSpam Form for re-inclusion.

Conclusion
Ranking higher in the Organic Listings for Local Search can be achieved pretty quick as you are only competing with other Local Businesses. The use of Long-Tail Keywords also help as most of them are not as competitive as 1 and 2 word keywords. With everything going Social and Mobile, its a good idea to optimize your site for fingers and thumbs<----easy navigation.

There are much more factors in ranking a page in the organic listings and in fact Google has 200 such signals. No one knows the true algorithm except for search engines and the coders themselves. The best option is to keep up with the latest information  in search engine news. Join Forums, Blogs and Social Networks that have Search Engine Marketing groups.

Remember, No true Search Engine Optimization Specialist can guarantee you first place rankings in the Organic Listings. While many claim they can, they probably could when it comes to non competitive keywords and for Local search it is much easier to rank. Let them show you results of their work and check out their following on social networks, this will give you a good idea of reputable companies!
By "Shawn Lippert"

Additional Resources:
These are the 10 Videos Webmasters must watch according to Google, Thanks to Chris Crum form WebProNews
Google Webmaster Videos