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Hi, Mozzers-

I'm re-evaluating my SEO WordPress Plugins. What are your favorites and why? Are there others that you avoid and why?

Thanks!

I've experimented around with this quite a bit - below are some of my conclusions.

Title tags and descriptions are quite important. Use the "auto complete" suggestions to help assist with your keyword phrases and descriptions. Use all of the "characters" allowed. For example, you are allowed 5,000 characters for the description - use it!

Obviously, creating good quality videos with useful or entertaining information is critical. Even if you get your video to show up on the first page, people will still need to be compelled to watch it. Keep it short!

Give YouTube context in which your video should be viewed. If your video is about learning how to play the piano. Subscribe, like comment on other relevant videos. Doing so gives YouTube added insight about your video. Be active and authentic.

Good luck!

You can start by claiming & completing your listing. Make sure that it is complete, with a good description, images, special offer, relevant categories, etc.

Next, start compiling citations. I like Whitespark's Local Citation Finder - http://www.whitespark.ca/local-citation-finder/. He's a fellow Mozer too! Make sure to be consistent with how you list your business.

I'd recommend reading http://www.davidmihm.com/. David Milhm's site offers some great insight to local search.

Also, take a look at the sites that have high visibility. What citations do they have? How many reviews, what does their profile look like?

Good luck!

LHC

SEMRush.com is a quick place to start. I like SpyFu.com too. You can also get a pretty good idea of the terms they're trying to target by reviewing their content and backlinks (anchor text).

Good luck!

LHC

Yes, I agree with the other answers about optimizing your local listings. You may even want to get citations too. One thing that I've done is to create content that is optimized for the cities. You could even add something in the footer that links to that interior (local) page.

Hi, Ian-

Additional Ideas:

Write a press release & distribute it.

http://www.thecharitydirectory.org/ & other "Charity" directories

Social Media - Use social media to help get the word out about your cause. Use iFrames to setup a nice Facebook page that goes to your donation form.

Leverage the Board's relationships. For example, are any of them members of ADA, dentists at a clinic, alumni, etc.

Get do-follow social bookmarking links.

Create a nice looking logo with well-optimized anchor text, attributes, etc and ask for links.

Good luck!!

LHC

I agree with EGOL. Look at the SEOMOZ video transcripts. Lots of times I'll just read through the transcript so I can get to the "nugget" of info really fast. We've been in the habit of doing video transcripts and lots of times those pages will outrank lots of other pages. How about just adding a link - "Read the Video Transcript" and going to a new page? Simple but effective.

FYI - you can use up to 5,000 characters in the YouTube description. Use all of it!

Good luck!

LHC

If you have a contact page on your website that talks about your location you could also mention that you serve the areas of .....I've also added cities/ counties in Google Places in the additional areas.

I like myblogguest.com & <cite>www.blogsynergy.com/</cite> too.

Otherwise, I suggest cultivating a really good RSS platform of good blogs. Get to know them - what is the tone? What type of content do they generally write about? Do they have guests? Is it a subject you are knowledgeable about? Join a local group for bloggers in your area. There are also a ton of groups in LinkedIn.

Good luck!

LHC

How about writing some content about cleaning, organizing and sourcing some good mom bloggers to guest post on? Love the idea of doing an infographic too. You could probably do something pretty funny given the topic.