Google is quite simply the most important search engine for most websites. And although traditionally Google results were driven by content (data) and how other sites rate that data, sharing may end up being a big part of how they rank and sort websites. In other words, website administrators, or anyone outside the Google circle for that matter, don’t know how Google+ will affect page rank and so adding the button is more or less insurance.

One of the coolest things about Google+ (also referred to as “Google Plus” and “G+”) is the “Circles” feature. Circles allow you to organize your contacts into different categories such as friends, business, family, etc. and so anything private will be only accessible by those you let into the circle. “Hangouts” is another G+ feature that enables group video chat, but the groups are currently limited to 10 people. There are several other features in Google+ you might want to check out.

For now, Google+ is in “limited Field Trial” and so the Google Plus home page is only accessible by some. For now, you might want to get Google+ button added to your page with the hopes the more “likes” you have the more traffic to your site.

Here’s a link to adding the +1 button, and here’s a link to the various +1 buttons sizes you can make use of.

If you have a physical business location, you’ll want to hit as many business directories as you can starting with Google Places. In Google Places, you can create a profile of your business including services, location, phone number, and website address. You may find that your business will outrank a competitor who does not a have local business profiles in Google search results. Wouldn’t that be nice?

But don’t stop there! You’ll also want to make sure Yahoo! Local has your business listed, as well as Bing Local. “The Big 3″ web search engines are absolutely essential if you want to stay ahead of the pack. Yahoo! also has a Directory Submit that will get your site reviewed quickly and listed in their directory. If you can find room in your budget, the yearly fee of $299 may be well worth it.

There are many more local search websites to consider when optimizing for local search. Yelp provides reviews of local businesses by users, as well as search and social networking tools. With 31 million unique visitors a month as of early 2010, Yelp is hard to ignore.

Foursquare is another user-contributed service where local business patrons can “Check-In” to businesses via mobile devices and build “Mayor” status by frequenting the most locations. As of October, 2010 the site had 4 million registered users.

Too much to do and no time on your hands? Land Interactive can help you get your business optimized for local search at an affordable price. Contact us for a free quote.

Choosing a username.

When choosing a username try to pick a name without an underscore (ex. land_interactive) or number (ex. landinteractive2010) that is easy to remember. Studies done by Web research firm HubSpot have shown that usernames without underscores or numbers lead to more followers. Hence, you would want a username like “landinteractive” or “landinte” to simplify.

Tweeting

Tweets are short, concise, and usually timely messages that can communicate something, or direct a viewer/user to a webpage. Tweets must be shorter than 140 characters, so be creative. If linking to a webpage, use a URL shortener like tinyurl.com to fit into your tweet.

Twitter experts have said not to go overboard with tweeting. Rather, spread them out over time and get others to retweet your tweets if you can. Having a frequently updated Twitter page will surely increase awareness of your brand.

You can also research other sites such as ask.com or free article directories where your expertise could be utilized. Write an article, and have your website in your profile. “How to” videos are also very popular and could be uploaded to YouTube to get some link juice back to your site.

An older method of gaining links back to your site is to request link exchanges with similar sites. If you have a Website, you may have already been bombarded by spammers looking to do link exchanges. Research other sites in your industry and cherry pick those sites you intend to contact.

So should you use meta keywords? While Google has said they ignore the meta data, other search engines may still use the data to determine the page content. Yahoo and Bind, as far as we know, have not yet come out and said they ignore the data. And, if you have a site that is flash-based or heavy on images, you may want to include meta keywords and description so the search bots can determine page content.

However, our advice is to not spend too much time on meta tag keywords, especially given the overwhelming search market share owned by Google.

1. Get directories to link back to your site.
2. Create comments on other sites with your web address
3. Write relevant articles on free article websites like EzineArticles.com.
4. Create social destination sites like Twitter and Facebook that link back to your site
5. Request link exchanges with relevant sites (Do not spam)
6. Submit links to social bookmarketng sites like Stumbleupon.com
7. Use content sites like YouTube and Flickr to link back to your site.

Many have suggested that DMOZ editors are on the take and will not list sites that may compete with existing sites. We have also attempted to become volunteer DMOZ editors several times but have just been ignored.

In addition, Google has said that they are relying less and less on DMOZ for site ranking. In fact, Google’s Matt Cutts is quoted in saying, “we don’t use Dmoz in a lot of the ways that we used to.” He added, “in general, if you can’t get into Dmoz, I wouldn’t necessarily worry about it.” Our advice? Start a Twitter or Facebook account instead. Your time will be better spent.

To be sure your images are being indexed, use Google Webmaster Tools and make sure “Image Search” is clicked on in the Settings. Be sure to also name your images appropriately. If you are displaying a picture of an organic apple, for example, name the graphic “organic apple” and not something like “pic2″. Seach engines cannot see your images, so they rely on either the file name or “Alt Tag.”