Google is like God. It works in mysterious ways.

But there are people who think they have the inside story. I gather some serious testing has been done to validate the claim that Google Places (http://www.google.com/places/) helps one’s ranking significantly. 

5 reasons to partake in Google Places:

1. It's free
   And the listing fast to create. I'll explain how in this post.
    
2. You don't even need a website
   Just pop your details in and – voila! – online presence. 
    
3. Local biz?
   Google Places promotes your physical location through Google Maps. So if your customers are local, and you want more of them, and what you do for a living is legal, then you really should appear on Google Places, no question. 
    
4. Local or not local
   Either way the keywords in your profile will help your Google ranking. More about this in a jiffy.

5. Protect yourself from identity theft
   Some soul-barren businesses actually search to see which of their competition hasn't gotten around to listing themselves on Google Places – and then take advantage. Basically, they pretend to be you and direct the visitor to their site and phone number. So best get onto it, I say.

What is Google Places exactly?

Google allows you to create a basic profile (business listing) and a ‘pin’ to pop on Google Maps as to where you are located. Here's an example showing My Marketing Thing (you can see a red pin that says 'A' indicating where My Marketing Thing resides):

Don’t want people visiting you at home?

If you work from home/online like I do, invest in a PO Box. There’s no problem listing a postal box on your Google Places profile. That’s what is happening here for My Marketing Thing's pin.

Click on the name of the business…

….and you see this:

As I don't have a shop but a post box, Google has taken the liberty of putting a photo up of a café next to where the post boxes are. I guess, while they’re trying to find me they can pit stop for a cuppa…

Note: Put a fake street address in your listing and Google will smack you. Put multiple listings for the phone number and it will smack you again (which is a real bummer if you have genuinely different businesses using the same phone number…but life isn't fair). Actually, Google won't smack you. It will just remove the extra listings.

On a happier note…The wonderful thing you might notice here is that my website link and phone number are both there in all their glory. Beautiful. But wait – there’s more!

Click the ‘more info’ link…and you see something like this:

Quelle joyeux, oui?

What goodies do you get?

• A description about you – written by you
• Contact details – again, bless them
• Photos and reviews - Google assesses these prior to letting them through the gate (best not write your own review…they won't let it through)
• Related places - okay…that’s often your competition but, hey, it’s a community thing, and then they make it all better by letting you promote yourself EVEN FURTHER under:
• More about this place - your additional description plus some mysterious streaming stuff happens here (your activities on other sites)  beyond your control…be prepared to be amazed.

So how do you set up your Google Places listing?

1. Sign up for a free Google account (if you haven't one already)
   (make the email address relevant to your business as the public will see it)
2. Go to: http://www.google.com/places/
3. Click on this bit: (insert pic of Google Places page)
4. Sign into your Google account on the right hand side (if you're not signed in already)
5. Enter your business phone number and select the correct country, as requested 
6. Follow the rest of the prompts, it's pretty straight-forward
   …but there is one thing we need to talk about:

 
About 'Breaking into the Top 7'

When you hear people talking about 'Breaking into the Top 7' of Google Places they are talking about when someone searches in Google (i.e. 'Google proper') there's often seven flagged listings that appear first on the page – with a Google Map beside the section indicating where these businesses are found. 

Pretty nice real estate, oui?

Here's an example of an accountants search (with my scribble indicating the Adwards pins and the free Google Places pins):

Keywords for higher Google ranking

You can have keywords in the areas of: your business name, description and additional details of your Google Places listing. Here's the low-down:

Your business name
You would this this one's pretty straight-forward. But some business names don't really say what area they are in. This can put you on the backfoot, Google-wise. Some add a word or two after the business name to explain it.
Accountancy example:
Your business name could officially be XYZ Pty Ltd.
But some people might choose to type something like: XYZ Accountancy Services for better search engine optimisation.

Warning on 'keyword stuffing'
Be careful with keywords in the business name, however. Some people have been caught (usually by their competitors dobbing them in) putting a heap of keywords in the business name field. It can get to the point when it's obvious this isn't the proper business name. And you're sunk. If the name looks strangely keyword crammed (called 'keyword stuffing') Google will have you for breakfast.

Your description
Your 200-character description needs to focus on your key products and services. Don't waste characters on your history, your geographic location or try to impress with jargon. Just say what you specialise in and what your services/products include – keywords should appear naturally in this description.

Hint 1: If you are an accountant, use both 'accountant' and 'accountancy' in the description. If you're a trainer, use 'trainer' and 'training'. Get the picture?
Hint 2: Apparently using 'the word free' is a good idea – so end with: 'Free quotes'.

Your category
You have to have at least one standard category, but for better Google ranking use all five opportunities available. Look at your top keywords and choose the most relevant five.
Example: Accountant, Business Accounting, Tax accounting, Chartered accountant, Financial Adviser.

Additional details:
Like with description, focus on products and services.
Accountancy example:
Chartered accountants and financial planners specialising in: Assurance and advisory, business solutions, corporate finance, financial services, outsourced accounting, risk management, tax services, insolvency.
Each detail consists of two fields with a maximum space of 200 characters each. The colon after 'specialising in' separates the two fields.
 

After submitting your information

You have to verify your listing by phone (you trigger a phone call from Google's computers – quite nifty) or mail (snail mail of up to 5 weeks).

Don't stop there!

Once your Google Places listing is there for all the world to see, you can really ramp up the action:

• Reviews
  Strong-arm clients to write gushingly positive reviews about you (email them the link to your Google Place page for easy access).
   
• Offers
  Have a special offer to lure new clients? Promote it here. Or you can create one especially for those who have found you on Google Places Upload it (with a coupon?) to your Google Place page. Note: if there's a time limit on the offer, make it crystal clear.
   
• Photos & Video
  You can upload 10 photos and 5 videos (from YouTube.com). Add relevant, meaningful photos (your 'outlet', your products, a photo of you and a happy client who likes having their photo paraded online). Consider a special video message from you for those who have found you on Google Places (mentioning that special offer we talked about in the previous point perhaps?). 'What we do' videos aren't particularly enticing – lead in with how you solve a common problem.
  SEO hint: have keywords in the titles of your photo and video files.

That's enough. It's probably taken you longer to read this article than to actually create your Google Places listing. But there's no excuses now. Off you go. Et bon chance!

This post was written by Megan Hills. Megan is a writer, cartoonist and marketing consultant who finds having a fixed address challenging – just as well it's a post box. Find out more about Megan.

When it comes to search engines, YouTube remains ahead of Yahoo!, safely in the number two spot behind Google (Ref: ComScore). Interestingly, what videos rank well on YouTube doesn't always rank well on Google, and visa vera. Considering YouTube is owned by Google, this is kinda weird.

Apparently, 'Google proper' relies heavily on inbound links (i.e. links off YouTube pointing to your videos). YouTube takes this into account too, but spreads out the love more evenly with other factors.

Keywords help your YouTube ranking a great deal – even more than on Google. You can insert them in:

• The title of your video
  Tip: have keywords at beginning of your video title.
   
• The description of each video and your channel
  Write your description like its a small blog post – don't keyword stuff it to the point of reading repulsion.
   
• Tags
  This is where you can shamelessly insert your keywords – but they MUST be relevant to your video.

For those more tech-savvy…

…look into adding a transcript to the description and use YouTube’s annotation feature to add captions or subtitles. 

Tip: To build up your e-list on your website you can use ‘annotations’ on YouTube to have a box that says “Enjoy more videos like this: subscribe (insert website details)”

Which keywords to use?

As you would when thinking about keywords for your website, ask the obvious question: What would you type in 'search' to find your video?

Here is a nifty shortcut to finding the right keywords for your video: search on YouTube “How to get (inset your keyword/key phrase related to your video topic)”  What results come up? 

How other people respond to your videos affects your ranking

This includes such activity as: 

• viewing your channel 
• viewing your videos 
• rating you (i.e. number of likes)
• making comments 
• subscribing to your channel
• becoming your friend
• Sharing your video with friends

You need interaction

Remember YouTube is social media. That means engagement. If you participate you get rewarded in your rankings. If you jump in, post a video and disappear you are likely to have wasted you time. It's about earning trust in a community.

While wandering around other people's channels you also learn what videos are out there – and what videos aren't. That is, you discover what is missing out there in the YouTube marketplace – what holes you can fill.

So subscribe to other people's channels in your niche, rate their videos, make comments, share other people's videos with friends who would appreciate it, etc. In short: Engage!

BIG TIP:
Building a community means that you are also likely to have more inbound links – i.e. links form outside of YouTube pointing to your videos. Inbound links help tremendously with your ranking.

BIGGISH TIP:
Boost your inbound link number by having your video links on Digg, Reddit, Buzzfeed.

• Have playlists on your channel
  In other words, organise your videos (and/or other people's videos that you like and are related to your topic) under keyword-savvy category names to attract your audience.
   
• Flagging
  This is being a whistle-blower, telling YouTube when someone else has posted something outside the rules. You are likely to be rewarded for being a snitch.
   
• Embeds
  Putting a video on your website using the embed code (rather than just a hyperlink), also helps to raise your ranking.

How long has your video been there?

Being the more recent video helps your ranking. But of course, the longer you are there the more views and subscriptions you may have earned. So the idea is to keep posting videos – be the newest, but also be the most popular.

This post was written by Megan Hills. Megan is a writer, cartoonist and marketing consultant who has never been to the summit – but she has been to 'me'. Find out more about Megan

As promised in my last post Using keywords for SEO and other alien adventures, here's a bigger picture (beyond keywords) on SEO.

In other words, here are some dating tips when seducing Google into giving you a higher ranking. It's sort of like the Bachelorette of the Internet. 

• a high number of visitors,
  but it's even better if you have…
   
• a high number of 'unique visitors' (i.e. first-timers – Google likes it if you make a good first impression) 
  but it's even better if you have…
   
• a high number of unique visitors who then return a lot and wander around your site for ages in wonderment
  but it's even better if you have…
   
• a high number of unique visitors who then return a lot and wander around your site for ages in wonderment and subscribe to your newsletter and/or your RSS feed and/or buy stuff and/or leave a comment and/or email you directly, and/or engage in your visitor poll (quick online survey), etc.

In summary: Have a cool group of friends – that just keeps getting bigger and bigger – who like to do stuff with you.

How do you do this? By being attractive, interesting and interested in those who come to visit you.

2. Are you, like, into talking about stuff?

Google isn't into the smouldering silent type. She hangs with chatty, social personalities. 

Constantly changing content, particularly on your home page, is a good thing. Constantly changing content that have great keywords (relevant to your site) is even better.

This is why blog sites are so popular with Google. The format of blogs is inspire new articles, regularly posted, right there on the home page. And they are also strongly designed to inspire visitor comments (remember that visitor interaction thing in dating tip #1). 

However, if you have a website instead, your Google cred can still be intact. You can still have changing news on your home page with an opportunity for people to comment. Everything is possible. Just make sure you have a CMS (content management) website so you can go in and change anything at any time.

3. Are, like, other cool people talking about you?

4. Do you want to, like, get married? 

Google doesn't want a fly-by-nighter. She likes the solid ones who have been around awhile.

The longer your site has been online, the higher your ranking is likely to be. It's just one of those things.

Final episode

Just because Google is partial to polyandry doesn't mean she won't give you the affection you want. You just need to play by her rules, whatever they are. Women really never tell you, do they?

So the above is advice given by SEO experts around the place who have tested their theories by taking Google on different kinds of dates to see what makes this mysterious woman smile.

But, the problem is, she's a fickle individual who will never kiss and tell. So we just keep buying those flowers and chocolates and calling her number again…and again…

What's next in the Google dating game?

Prostitution. When people say, 'We can get you on the first page of Google' they are generally pimps, touting pay-per-chick advertising services. We're talking AdWords campaigns.

Stay tuned to find out how to get to home base with Google.

To re-cap this SEO series: 

If you want to know what SEO (search engine optimisation) really means: 
SEO: True meanings and confessions

To find the best keywords for you: 
SEO and keyword research: Goldilocks meets the devil

To work out how to apply those keywords:
Using keywords for SEO and other alien adventures

This post was written by Megan Hills.  Megan is a writer, cartoonist, marketing consultant who is looking forward to writing about making a meaningful connection with real people – rather than these superficial, popularity-seeking search engine spiders. Find out more about Megan.

If you've just started visiting, this is the third post about that crazy thing called 'SEO'. For many of us, it's much like the acronym 'UFO'.

Admission: I know quite a bit about SEO, but it still makes me feel like an alien. 

Here is what this particular marketing therapy group has chatted about so far:

If you want to know what SEO (search engine optimisation) really means:
SEO: True meanings and confessions

To find the best keywords for you:
SEO and keyword research: Goldilocks meets the devil

Keyword definition re-cap:

Keywords are those niche words and phrases your target market is likely to type into Google's search box. This involves a combination of research and ESP (interestingly, this is just what aliens are renowned for). 

So, now that you know what your best keywords are…  

What is next? Knowing the best way to insert these little bundles of joy into your site. Take my hand and I'll show you around Planet Keyword…. 

On your actual web (or blog) page

It's a good idea to use keywords in your page content in the following ways:

• in your tag line (otherwise known as a slogan)
  
• in the titles of your pages
• throughout your content text, home page particularly (but don't over-do it, good communication comes first)
• in the titles of any news articles
  
• in sub-headings
• in bold words
  
• in hyperlinks
  

All of these have been suggested by SEO experts. But it's not a perfect science because Google refuses to tell anyone their secret recipe.

What happens keyword-wise on your web or blog page is only the beginning. There is a host of 'back end' tricks that you can make yourself available to. And it is not as painful as it sounds. 

Your domain name

'Marketing' is a keyword for this site. And it's is in my URL: www.mymarketingthing.com. With that said, 'marketing' is an insanely broad (competitive) keyword so I'm not going to get much SEO mileage out of having this in my blog address. Never mind. I'll be moving to Mars soon anyway.

It might not be too late for you though – if you're wanting to stay here on Earth, that is. So if you're still deciding on your domain name then consider inserting a keyword there.

Title tags

If you visit the home page of this blog site www.mymarketingthing.com, you will notice some words on the bar at the very top of the page: marketing plans media public relations…etc. etc. This is my home page title tag.

Title tags work best when you have key phrases and perhaps your business name. If your business needs to attract clients from your physical location, a geographic reference like 'Brisbane' is worth putting in.

Some say 65ish character limit ballpark for title tags, but other say around 10ish words. Can’t find a definitive answer on this. 

Alt tags

Keywords can be very important when it comes to ‘Alt tags’. Alt tags mean ‘alternative text’ and this field comes up when you are inserting an image on a web page.

Keywords in alt tags are generally good for ranking. When people (and search engine tracking spiders) look via keywords on Google images, your photos and graphics can appear. So this is another way powerful way potential clients can stumble across your site.

Apparently alt tags shouldn't have more than 5 words in each. And be aware that your visitors might be able to see them if they run their mouse over the image. So alt tags need to say something that makes sense. 

Title of your image with a keyword(s) example: alien.jpg 

I read on Splash.net.au that a maximum of 78 words is allowed for all alt tags on one web page.

This article has post tag words like: 'keywords', 'search engine optimisation', 'SEO' and 'title tags'.

A note about article directories

If you ever find the time, you can also submit your keyword-savvy articles to online article directories to raise your online presence – therefore, your ranking. This can be done for free and each article generally has a tag section where you can type relevant keywords.

The article generally ends with your website link, acting as an 'inbound link' (a link on another website pointing to your website, or blog site). Great for SEO. More about inbound links in the next post.

Category titles

Keyword tricks you can get into trouble for

Avoid hidden text or hidden links, and don't load pages with irrelevant words. If you do, Google will send you to the back of the class. And you don't want to go there.

SEO is not all about keywords, by the way.

Nooooo….. There is a much bigger, even more exciting picture afoot. I'll be back soon to take you to the Mothership of SEO.

Search engine optimisation (SEO). Everyone wants to know about it. Even if they really don't.

Because, surely, there are more interesting things we can do with our time. But I guess (she says begrudgingly) if you want to be found easily on Google (or other popular search engines) it's probably not a bad idea to know the lay of the land.

Then, if you wish, you can reject all these SEO tips outright and focus on being more interesting.

Note: Being interesting online is good for your SEO. 

Second note: If you're unsure what search optimisation means, read my previous post, SEO: True Meanings and Confessions

Let's start with what I call 'The Devil'

Another word for The Devil: the keyword. And to confuse things, key phrases (i.e. more than one word) are also called keywords. 

Keywords are what other people will type in the Google search box to find websites that cover a particular criteria. Ideally, you want these words to appear on your site so they match with the kinds of searches your target market is likely to make…all to find someone special like you.

It's supposed to work like this: Your potential customer taps in a word or two, clicks on 'search' and voila! There you are, on the very first page (ideally), waiting to greet them.

An aside: Why my bad press on keywords?

My personal distaste for keywords stems from the bizarre communication contortion that people embrace for the sake of good ranking. They can spoil creative communication, and even straight-up clear writing. Keywords can be party-poopers in the fun park of message giving.

Admittedly, people are starting to find ways to use them for good and not evil. 

My distaste also stems from that fact that I am number phobic. Ascertaining the right keywords is a numbers game. As you are about to find out…

What keywords are best for you?

Let's use an example. Say you want to set up a website that sells meditation books and CDs via your site's online store. This means you are creating an online business, so ranking will be rather important for moving your merchandise as well as your chi.

‘Meditation’ is an obvious keyword to focus on – or so you would think. Of course, 'meditation' will appear on your site, but the term is very general. And so it attracts a massive number of sites on Google. In fact, 27,400,000 searches came up for that word when I last looked.

How do I know? Because at the top right hand side of the Google results page (under the Google logo and search box) is a light blue bar that gives you these results.

27,400,00 search results is called 'insanely large competition'. The enlightenment industry is humming like a plague of bumblebees on heat. In other words, be prepared to get buried somewhere on page 37 (i.e. the outer reaches of the Google universe).

So what's the answer?

The Goldilocks theory 

This is where having a ‘niche’ is handy. What you want are keywords that are not too big (because of that 'insane competition' problem) but also not too small (i.e. no one would dream of typing it in to search for it). So we are shooting for: not too big, not too small, just right.

‘Home meditation’ is getting better niche-wise but still pretty competitive (20,100,000 searches came up), perhaps also ‘DIY meditation’ (1,010,000 comes up for this term). ‘Guided mediation’ brings 734,000 searches.

'Guided meditation cd' is better at 192,000. ‘Guided meditation audio’ is also smaller at 168,000 searches. So these two are much better than just silly old 'meditation'.

Getting the picture?

Proper keyword finding tools

Looking at the numbers on the results bar after a Google search is one way to get a rough gist. To get a better gist you can use Google's Adwords Keyword Tool and click here for Google's new Beta version.

AdWords is Google's pay-per-click advertising service. But you don't have to be an AdWords customer to use their Keyword Tool. And it's free. Aren't they generous?

The Keyword Tool shows you how many people are searching for what words (related to whatever you type in the search box). It also shows you how strong the competition is for particularly words and phrases. Very handy.

So type in the words that relate best to your core products or services and research away.

Spy on your competition

The box where you can type in a website address offers a great opportunity to see what keywords your competitors use (competitors being those that offer the same kinds of products and or services to the same kind of target market).

Looking at the keywords of websites by those competitors who are already highly ranked can give some useful clues.

Spiffy keyword finding tools

If you don't mind spending some money to get a closer look at what might work best for you, Wordtracker is one of the best known keyword research tools.

Note: You will find that keyword research software companies generally offer a free trial. Plunder at your leisure.

But according to Top Ten Reviews, the best keyword analysis software is:

1. Web CEO (over over 707,000 businesses currently rely on it…Lordy)
2. Advanced Web Ranking (the company who made ABR is from Romania, which must be embarrassing because heaps of people are using this software but don't like to admit it)
3. iBusiness promoter (from the more respectable country of Germany, these people say that you will be in the top 10 of Google or get your money back – except that their clients might be too afraid to ask for their money back because the company is German)

Well, that's the first three. Check out the rest here. 

Other popular packages include:

• Market Samurai
• SEO Elite 
• Good Keywords
• Keyword Spy
• Keyword Discovery

Trawl through at will.

How do I use keywords on my site?

My God, are you still awake? My hat off to you. As a reward for your persistence, we are going to 'hold that thought'. You can go and have a nap now. 

But I'll be back next post to answer your sage question. If you don't apply this keyword caper correctly search engines can penalise you in ways you haven't even imagined.

Google might be a cute name but do the wrong thing and, man, they can get ugly. 

Stay close.

This post was written by Megan Hills.  Megan is a writer, cartoonist, marketing consultant who wonders whether Goldilocks was ever the butt of a blonde joke. Find out more about Megan.