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Yes I was using the term loosely.  Bad word choice for a forum such as this

So what would you suggest in a situation on my other question with my lawn care company?  We service no less than 30 different cities.  How would I optimize for that?  Maybe by dedicating pages to specific cities?  Problem there is that I can only spin content about lawn fertilization so many different ways.

So I think maybe I'm a little too focused on my local modifiers.  As long as I mention on page that we're talking about Pennsylvania, and my main keyword is "small business it consultants", then I shouldn't have a problem ranking for a search term of "small business it consultants Pennsylvania"?  As I stated above, I think my biggest worry is that my sole focus here is local traffic, so I don't want to compete with the whole country for a particular keyword. Can I target the same keyword set on more than one page?  For instance, in my area we are comprised of about 10 different towns in which we all work.  So could I just have one page for this town, one page for that town, both of which would target the same keywords?

So, if I interpret what you are saying correctly, then once a places and bing biz are set, google gathers the location based on this?  I just don't want to get into a situation where by taking out my local modifiers, I am then competing with the whole world for a keyword, when I could just be competing with other locals.  Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me.  You obviously have a lot of it, and I value your opinions.

Thanks for your input on this.  I am really grasping all things seo, with the exception of the keyword research portion.  I think I would have no trouble if my friend was, say a dentist, figuring out keyword combos.  This situation is just so difficult because in a technical, B2B company, what are those businesses really typing into google when they need a guy like him?  I suppose a in a situation like this it's a little luck, a little research, and some guessing.  Mix that with my somewhat lacking understanding of localized seo, and here I am lol.  From what I gather, a lot of you guys are looking for high traffic, low competition keywords, which obviously makes sense.  But for localized, I would think that often in certain areas, most ranking companies do not have great seo plans.  In this case, I think I could simply go with the keywords with highest traffic, considering localized competition seems so much easier to compete with for many businesses (in my area anyway).  Research is limited by country only, so even running the keyword difficulty tool IMO would lead to less than accurate levels of competition.  Am I anywhere on the right track here?  Sorry for the "elementary" questions, I'm just trying to have all my ducks in a row before I act on anything.  I like to be as right as possible the first time

I agree entirely.  I am certainly just starting out here, so I am reading and constantly searching.  The biggest issue is the vast amount of knowledge out there, some good and some bad, but all disconnected.  I am also aware that targeting organic lawn care isn't getting me very far, but i'm still glad I at least got something on the number 1 rank :).  However, when I built the site, I knew nothing about SEO, and I haven't had my hands on it since I started learning.  I think my biggest issue right now is that I am doing all this research and learning, and there's more to read and more to learn, so I'm not actually "doing" anything.  I'm really trying to just get something started to gain some real world experience.  Thanks for the response!

Kane-

I must admit that since I am in the lawn care business, I do tend to lump some things in there.  We do lawn fertilization, aeration and seeding, tree and shrub treatments, and perimeter pest control.  I suppose I need to broaden my horizons a bit for seo.  My main focus is on the lawn fertilization side of things, so I tend to gear all of my questions toward that aspect.  I could also add some "city pages" to target traffic for the other areas in which we work.

Great input here, Robert.  I am very new at this, and of course I have a friend that I run into trouble with.  Thanks for your help!

Thanks!  So, for localized SEO, I don't necessarily need the location modifier as part of my keyword phrase?  (I'm a newbie)  So I can use my standard broad keyword phrases, and then just make sure I have specific locations somewhere on the page?

Ok, thank you very much for the response!

I have a friend who owns an IT business in Pennsylvania.  I have been on the adwords tool begging for keywords that people are searching for and I am getting no search results at all.  I have tried all types of combinations-

IT consultant Pennsylvania

IT consultant PA

network solutions pennsylvania

computer tech pennsylvania

...and many variations thereof.  Does this mean that maybe just no one looks for this type of business on google?  What would you guys do in this situation?

Thanks!

To add to my question for local businesses-  I understand we should only optimize for a small amount of keywords per page.  This is great for sites that talk about a lot of stuff.  But, a lawn care company provides only one thing- lawn care.  So, can I make multiple pages that are optimized for the same keyword set?  How do I create content on other pages when really there's only a select number of keywords relevant to my business?

Not quite sure if I read correctly, but is it correct that one campaign tracks only one page of my site?  So if I wanted to track something like a services page, this would require a second campaign?

Great response, and thank you.  So basically, the research is to decide the best order or annunciation of particular words, ie. lawn services allentown vs. allentown lawn services.  So its geared more toward choosing one over the other, which I think makes perfect sense.  What do you do when you're not sure what keywords to start with?  For instance, I have a future client once I get established who operates a vehicle graphics company.  It could be labeled as vehicle graphics, vinyl car wrap, truck lettering, etc.  Do you use the same process for deciding which of these to use?  Just go by search volume and difficulty?  My biggest fear is optimizing for a keyword no one is searching for, and something like vehicle graphics often comes down to specific geographical area.  People in california may search for truck lettering, while people in allentown may search for vehicle graphics.  Any input on this, considering google doesn't get very location specific?

Hello all.  This is my first interaction with SEOmoz, and I am still in my learning phases.  I currently own a lawn fertilization company near Allentown, PA.  I do the site for myself, and I am ranked number one for organic lawn care for my cities.  My question may seem kind of elementary, but I just want to clear this up for myself.  I want to start a side business doing SEO, and from what I gather step one is keyword research.  I plan on building new sites to start as opposed to going in and fixing existing ones.  So, I've been reading a lot on how to do keyword research and so forth.  I will use my current business as a reference for my question.  Should my main keywords be along the lines of "lawn care" and "lawn services", and then the location specific stuff be seperate?  Or should my main keywords be "lawn care allentown, pa"?  I plan on running my business solely for local businesses, so I am not to interested in competing with the entire world for keywords.  I just wasn't sure how to differentiate my keyword research for local business.  I hope that question made some sense.  I am really starting to grasp the elements of SEO, but for some reason the keyword part of things perplexes me.  Thanks for any responses!