Comments on: Cashing Out On The Local Search Demand

By: Elijah

Elijah — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:31:41 +0000

@WV – Yeah, the whole local industry targeted business directory is a great idea. It could cut a lot of time and promotion off of it if you could purchase a domain that already has a PR3 etc. and is related to a market. Then you could create a top level sub domain for the specific cities. Essentially creating a portal.
.-= Elijah´s last blog ..PIP Module 1 – Finding The Money Niche =-.

By: WordVixen

WordVixen — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:14:48 +0000

I like ranking for keywords like "Toronto dentists" and then selling ad space, but it requires quite a bit of work. .-= WordVixen´s last blog ..The Weight Loss Maniac is Live! =-.

By: Forest

Forest — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:28:12 +0000

Thanks Elijah... Off to watch your PIP Module 1 right now. Hope you guys are well. .-= Forest´s last blog ..How To Avoid Going To The Supermarket =-.

By: 2stepup

2stepup — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:21:16 +0000

Say you went after the local plumber with a pre made site showing in the serps and you sold the site, does that mean then you would not be able to approach other plumbers in the area to offer to build a site for them as you have already got a listing doing well.

I ask as you can get a lot more return than $2-500 by offering a design/ hosting/ email autoresponder service package to a business

By: Anand

Anand — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:44:13 +0000

I am referring to the ‘Local business results’ that Google shows up (along with a map, contact number, etc.). I guess this has existed for a long time…So when you search for “____ in Toronto”, all relevant local businesses in Toronto show up. If you register yourself as the particular business guy in Google’s directory, you can notch the top prominent spot ahead of the search engine results..

By: Elijah

Elijah — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 19:58:46 +0000

@2stepup – The ads are their own adwords ads just copied onto my site and linking to their sites. The point of this is so when the person visits the domain, they will see that all of their competitors are listed as well – increasing their desire to own the domain.

@Anand – Where did you hear about this? I haven’t seen any changes with getting your business listing on the front page, at least not in the Canadian market. Keywords are pretty relevant for my listings, and it’s not always easy to get that top spot.

@Chris – Yeah, like Mark mentioned earlier, he gets great clicks from his locally targeted sites, and I know your sites do very well with the local traffic as well – I see CaribbeanPot.com everywhere!!! Post up the link in the comments so we can all see your example.

@Forest – In regards to numbers, I try and target domains/keywords that get at least 10,000 per month in search as per Google’s keyword tool – and obviously I try and choose those with modest competition (on Google’s keyword tool, I like keywords where the competition bar graph is less than 3/4 of the way full. Around half is perfect!)
.-= Elijah´s last blog ..Cashing Out On The Local Search Demand =-.

By: Forest

Forest — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:51:07 +0000

Good solid info here Elijah. I am planning on getting in on the local action and your post has spurred me to start looking at it sooner rather than later.... Just out of interest, what sort of search numbers do you go for and what keyword tools do you utilize? .-= Forest´s last blog ..How To Avoid Going To The Supermarket =-.

By: Chris De La Rosa

Chris De La Rosa — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:26:09 +0000

Local is a friggin gold mine. The few clicks I get from the traffic at OntarioAlive pays well. The problem I face is not having enough time to add updated content to cover all possible searches, plus ad placement is key to being successful with it.

I have one post in particular that people started to comment on and now others think it’s the actual website of that service.

Chris…
.-= Chris De La Rosa´s last blog ..Swiss Chalet Rotisserie And Grill Upper Ottawa, Hamilton. =-.

By: Anand

Anand — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:54:49 +0000

Great tips Elijah..But the biggest con with local listings is Google’s own local listing. You no longer have to rank for your keywords. Just list your business on Google Local business listings and they show up even above the first keyword.

By: 2stepup

2stepup — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 03:00:07 +0000

I see the potential and have for awhile I was approaching business owners and offering to put them online but did not have a lot of success.

I like your idea of having a keyword relevant site already ranking for them to step into.

Elijah Is the ads you have on the flower site disguised adsense block

Russell