10 Simple Ways to Improve Satellite Site Search Engine Rankings

David Scarola

Satellite Site SEO Strategy

Magic Combination: Keyword & Location

Rather than attempting to rank on general business terms such as “Business

Coach”…

…our goal is to rank well on the combination of business term & location: “Business

Coach Little Rock”

This strategy will match the way our prospects search for our type of service.

Keywords & Locations

Business Keywords:Business CoachingBusiness Coach CEO CoachingExecutive CoachSmall Business CoachStrategic PlanningBusiness GoalsPeer Advisory Boards

Locations:Little RockOzarkPine Bluff

See “Satellite Sit Owner SEO Quick Guide” for full keyword list.

Target Base Pages

The following base pages on all satellite sites have been optimized to rank well with search engines. Home Page Steps to Membership (Join.aspx) Member Testimonials (Success-Stories.aspx) Member Demographics (Member-

Demographics.aspx)

You have the ability to & should customize these pages to reflect your local business.

Custom Pages

It is also recommended that you target your top custom pages on the site for SEO.

For example, if you have a page dealing with HR Assessments, you should configure this page for SEO.

As a result, when a prospect searches for “HR Assessment Little Rock” your custom page will have a good chance of ranking well.

How To Determine Current Ranking

Type “<keyword> <location>” into Google.

For example type “Business Coaching Little Rock”.

Count which position your page appears in the search results.

For example, if your site is in position 3 on the 5th page of the Google search results, it appears in position 43.

Create a Baseline to Track Improvements

SEO Impact Areas

There are two broad areas in which you can affect your site’s SEO rankings. On-Site Changes: “Meta Tags” and

content of the pages on your satellite site.

Off-Site Changes: Links into your site from prominent & credible external websites.

Realistic Expectations

When a satellite site is created, the 4 target SEO pages are installed. There is no ongoing corporate updates or link building efforts that will continue to improve SEO.

Your ability to rank well depends on the amount of ongoing effort to achieve high search engine ranking that you put into the site vs. that of your competition.

Your success will vary significantly by market size & competitive activity in your territory.

Achieving steady high search engine ranking is an ongoing battle.

5 On Site Changes to Improve Search Engine Rankings

Recommendation #1

Select one or two keywords/phrases that you would like to rank well on for your custom

pages.

For example, your custom HR Assessments page could target “HR Assessments” &

“Organizational Assessments”.

Use the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to help select or verify target keywords.

Recommendation #2

Be sure to include references to all geographical areas that your members may be targeting in

the text of your custom satellite site web pages.

“TAB Ozark provides business coaching and peer advisory services to business owners in

the Ozark region including Little Rock and Pine Bluff.”

Recommendation #3

Update the search engine meta-tags on your site to include both your target keywords and locations.

See the Satellite Site User Guide for details on how to use the SEO Webpart to modify meta-tags.

Title: Keep to 70 characters & include target keywords.

Description: Keep to 150 characters. Reference keywords & locations in the description. Be sure description is unique.

Keywords: List each target keyword separated by a comma.

<meta name="keywords" content="HR Assessments, Organizational Assessments"/>

Recommendation #4

Create the text copy of your custom page to be readable to visitors and to be attractive to search engines. Reference keywords in

the header tags and text body of the page.

H1

H2

Recommendation #5Use descriptive names, ideally including a target keyword, in the Page Name of your custom pages.

Creating links to pages within your site gives a boost to search engines.

5 Off Site Changes to Improve Search Engine Rankings

What are Inbound Links?

Links from other websites to your website. Your goal should be to establish as many

links as possible from other websites to your website.

This section outlines some prominent (& free) sites to begin establishing inbound links.

Ideally, these links should include link (anchor) text which references the keywords targeted on your site.

Recommendation #1

Create an entry in Google Places.

Go to www.google.com/placesforbusiness

Ask your members to write reviews.

Recommendation #2

Submit an entry to DMOZ (the “Open Directory Project”).

Go to www.dmoz.org/add.html

Follow the instructions for setting up your DMOZ entry & linking to your satellite site.

It may take months for the entry to be live.

Recommendation #3

Create a listing in Yahoo Directory.

This is the second highest Internet directory behind DMOZ.

They support a $299/year option & a free option.

Go to http://add.yahoo.com/fast/add?86307

Recommendation #4

Create member testimonial videos & load onto YouTube.

Create a YouTube channel to organize your videos. (See

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRju7d5sjwM

)

Recommendation #5

Create an account on EZineArticles.com. (Make sure to

include the “s” at the end!)

Periodically submit new articles with links to your satellite site.