My friend Dina runs a face painting business out of her home in Cary. Surprisingly there is more competition than expected in that niche. She told me this afternoon that she was talking with a young woman who gave her the following SEO advice:
Switch your site over to WordPress because Google likes WordPress and build some links.
The young woman also added, “Just tell me what your budget is and I’ll tell you what we can do for you.”
When she told me that it made me think of a conversation I had this afternoon with a business owner who allowed an SEO to “build some links” for him until he received the dreaded “unnatural links” notice from Google. His organic search traffic fell by 90%.
Do not build spammy crap links. What Dina’s face painting business needs is a handful of excellent, high authority links that show Google that Time for Face Painting is the most trusted and authoritative face painting site in the Cary area.
As of tonight, in an incognito search with personalization turned off, Time for Face Painting Kids is ranking number 2 for [face painting cary,nc]. Being the number 2 result means you’ve arrived. That’s not when you start to take chances, that’s when you work on your brand. In Dina’s case I recommended making sure her local business listings were complete.
Since I honestly don’t do many searches for face painting (I know it’s shocking), I did a bit of research about how people get to the face painters. I found out that [face painting] is two words, it is rarely searched for as [facepainting]. I also found out that nobody searches for [face painters]. After digging in a little deeper the only phrase with any real traffic is without the city attached, meaning people are just typing in [face painting] and letting Google figure it out from there.
The Google Keyword tool shows only 110 monthly searches for [face painting raleigh nc] and none for [face painting cary nc], but some of the other words have a bit more traffic and might be worth going after. Seeing the phrase [face painting for parties] as well as [party face painting] are both words I will suggest Dina work into her site.
What are some of the factors you use to determine who wins for your local searches? Let me know in the comments.
Some more tips – make sure your company information (location, contact info) is consistent and updated wherever it appears online… Also make sure your content appeals to local markets with references to landmarks, events, or local slang. It can help build confidence and authenticity with your clients. This is a great way to grab more search traffic – both paid and organic.
100% agreed Alok. The more citations that Google can find to verify your business the more they will trust you.
It is wonderful that your friend has taken such a step forward in terms of promoting her small business. When employed ethically, I believe this is what Search Engine Optimsation and Keyword selection is all about: helping smaller businesses stand out in the sea of big, corporate dollars and websites. Good on her, I say and I’d absolutely look to target some of the higher traffic keywords that you mentioned such as ‘face painting for parties.’