Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is on the rise, and rightly so.  Recent studies show that the first three results in any given Google search yield 60% of the clicks.  As if that wasn’t proof enough, read that sentence again- the word ‘search’ is redundant after ‘Google’.  In our world, we no longer search for something- we Google it.  So it is only natural that any business would want to rank #1 on Google- or any other search engines- search results.

This doesn’t just apply to large name-brands, either.  If you have even a small local business, you have every reason to invest in SEO- in fact; you probably have more reasons than large name-brands.  So what can you do to help your local businesses website rise in the rankings?

Spend some time on your site, and look at it from a customers perspective- does it inspire them to convert, either by purchasing something online or coming into your store?  It doesn’t have to be flashy, but is it effective?  Dressing up your site is a great place to start for SEO.  While you’re there, how are your keywords?  That is, when Google looks at your site, how strong is your message.  Two great free(!) tools are the Google Keyword Tool and the SEOmoz term extractor.  Use the keyword tool to see what keywords you should focus on and then run your site through the term extractor and see how you match up.

Once you have taken a look at your site and improved it, it’s time to move ‘off-page’.  If at all possible, start a blog and keep it updated regularly.  This will generate fresh content for your site, and provide a ‘personal touch’ for your product.

Further off-page is links.  Other websites linking to yours is one of the most important areas of your SEO- especially for a local business.  Nowhere is ‘world wide web’ more fitting- Google and other search engines look at your links as the strands that connect you to the rest of the web, and define your place in it.  How do you go about getting links that will help your SEO?

For any local business, the easiest way is to think of the sites you frequent that are related to your business.  Are the local directories (cough, cough, Seattle Umbrella) you can submit your site to?  Are there blogs you could write a guest post for, which then include a link back to your site?  Online journals you can submit articles to?  The possibilities are endless.  A word of caution, though: be sure avoid ‘link spam’, that is hundreds (or even hundreds of thousands- no joke!) of links from spammy sites that are little more than lists of links.  This can actually hurt your SEO.  If you use the Google toolbar, add the PageRank tool and this will tell you on a scale of 1-10 how trustworthy the site is.

Those are just a couple ways you can improve your SEO.  If you really want to do a lot to move up in the rankings fast, consider hiring a SEO consultant.  They can allow you to concentrate on your business while they take care of your SEO.  Depending on the size of your business and your goals, don’t be afraid to read up on SEO and work at it yourself, though- the results might surprise you!

We are excited to share with you the following blog post that was written by Dean Richard, Owner & Founder of Compass SEO. You can view more of Dean’s work on his site here and on twitter – @deanfortythree

It seems somewhat contradictory on the surface to say your local business should be marketing on the world wide web. But why should you use social media to promote your small business, and how can you get the most out of those avenues?

If you’ve been to the multimedia page, you may have watched this video (if you haven’t, you should- it’s excellent). Make no mistake, social media is here to stay. I’d venture to say that if you’re reading this, you already use social media personally. So while it connects people all around the globe, why do you need it for you local business?

Actually, you need it because you are a local business. One of the great things about social media is that it works every bit as well- or even better- on a small scale as it does on a large one. Take, for example, the brand that everyone associates with our lovely city of Seattle- Starbucks. Their Twitter is approaching 900,000 followers- and their feed is littered with replies to customers. Your business probably does not have 900,000 people following it- so take advantage of that. Reply to everyone you possibly can. Interact with them, get to know them- that’s part of being a local business, right? Giving your customers that personal attention online will let them know they’ll get personal attention off-line.

The best part of using Twitter to promote your local business is you can be instantly referred. With a couple clicks, a satisfied customer can tell everyone they know about you. And when they do that, thank them for it on Twitter! A common response I hear a lot is “Isn’t the opposite true? Can’t someone say how much they hated it just as easily?” The answer is yes- and that’s a good thing! How so? Let’s pretend you see this tweet:

“Had a horrible time @yourlocalbusiness.”

Ouch. Pretty damaging, right? Wrong. Reply with this:

“@unsatisfiedcustomer: sorry you had a lousy time. We’d like to make it up to you. Please come in for a free #whatever.”

And with that you have probably turned an unsatisfied customer into a satisfied- and possibly repeat- customer, who hopefully will give you feedback so you can improve. Oh, and the whole world saw you make it right. Not bad for a complaint, huh?

Another excellent avenue to explore is having a blog for your business. Twitter only allows you 140 characters- with a blog, you can talk as much as you like! What should you blog about, though? Trust me when I say this: you can blog about anything. You want to frequently connect it to your business, but your customers want to know you- so give it to them. Talk about your dog, your family, your hobbies- what makes you, you. And, as I said before, social media works better on a small scale, and that’s certainly true of your local business. Why do you live in Seattle? Why is your business in Seattle? Your fellow Seattleites will eat it up- it’s what we want and what we love.

In the video I referenced earlier (did you catch that youTube is social media too?), my favorite statistic is that 78% of people trust peer reccomendations, while only 14% trust advertising- and word of mouth is basically free. A well written, regularly updated blog goes a long way for that word of mouth. So pick a schedule, pick some topics and get writing (I write blogs about writing blogs- it’s a vicious cycle).

So if you haven’t already, fire up a twitter account and a blog for your business. Email links to them to everyone you know, local or not. Put up signs in your business and get it printed on cards. It’s the best marketing you can possibly do. If you ever get stuck, email me at deanfortythree@gmail.com or tweet me @deanfortythree and I’ll be happy to help out.

Dean Richard is a SEO Specialist and blogger for Bellingham-based Compass SEO, which specializes in marketing. He has lived in Western Washington his whole life, and loves all things Seattle – Well, most, anyway.

With social media today businesses are able to reach their target market and have conversations, discussions, promotions, and whatever communications they desire instantly – and free! This is invaluable to many businesses, and when used properly can be extremely advantageous particularly to those who don’t have the time or money to spend on traditional advertising. As a matter of fact, there are many schools of thought that would say traditional advertising will vanish for small businesses due to the progression of social media. With over 400 million people on facebook and over 18 million people on twitter, it is obvious that these are places that businesses need to be. There are many techniques that small businesses can use once on these sites and having a strong online presence has never been more important than it is today.

At The Seattle Umbrella we use social media in various manners, but primarily as a means to promote the companies that are “certified local” on our site. We have spent the last 6 months developing our social media followers, and are continuously working. We are slowly but surely compiling an audience of people in Seattle who want to do what they can to support local businesses here in Seattle. Thus is the beauty of The Seattle Umbrella project. With the continued success of our social media efforts, we are growing at an extremely steady pace, which in turn increases the value of using our social media to advertise here in Seattle. Local businesses can now use our social media to instantly reach an extremely targeted audience for a fraction of the price of any traditional advertising, and vastly more targeted.

Social media is changing the way business is done, and it is truly an exciting time for business. We wish all of you continued success, and encourage you to use social media to your advantage!

Cheers!

What is the Eat Local Challenge?
Did you know that the average ingredient in a North American meal travels over 1,500 miles to reach your plate? People all over the United States are starting to realize what that distance means in terms of food freshness, fuel usage and farming. We challenge you to spend two weeks eating locally (and to compare the taste and price of locally grown food to stuff grown over 1,500 miles away).

What do you mean by “local”?
We mean consciously choosing to eat foods that are grown close to your home. Many people around the country use 100 miles as their definition of “local.” We tend to think of local as “as close to home as possible.” To discover where to find local foods, checkout our site as well as your local farmers markets.

Why should I eat local food?
You should eat local food because it tastes better, because it can be less expensive, because its takes less fuel to transport it and because eating local food keeps more money in our community. Did you know that 73% more money stays in our community and re-circulates when you support locally owned businesses? (This includes locally owned farms, stores and restaurants.)

How can I get involved in the Eat Local Challenge?
Take the Eat Local Challenge by deciding to eat locally for two weeks or, if two weeks seems too intimidating, take the challenge for just a few days. Share your experiences (tasty new discoveries, unexpected challenges, etc.) in our blog, throw an Eat Local Party for your friends, visit one of our participating businesses to partake in their local goods.

1) A business fills out our application
2) The application is reviewed
3) Once approved and paid for the business becomes officially “certified local” to Seattle

After the business is certified local:

They have full use of our logo and of the phrase “Certified Local Business” by The Seattle Umbrella.

Certified Local Business Logo

Businesses are able to use this as an excellent marketing and promotion tool, and an addition to the bundle of selling points that make consumers have interest in them as a business. The Seattle Umbrella helps to promote these “certified local” businesses, and makes announcements for them via social media. Another bonus to becoming certified by The Seattle Umbrella is the easy recognition for people in the community who want to support local businesses. When they see our window sticker in the storefront, or logo on the website or flyers, a person knows immediately that business is local to Seattle, and has gone through our application and certification process.

They process and idea behind the local certification is fairly simple, however extremely powerful in nature. The Seattle community is highly intelligent and educated and pushing more and more to stay local, and support small local businesses that help define our community.  Our goal with the local certification is to help identify local businesses, certify them to make sure they are actually “local”, and use this as a means to connect them with the people who are striving to find and support them.

As The Seattle Umbrella moves forward, we are receiving an overwhelming response from restaurants in Seattle that are interested in being a “Certified Local Business.” It is a great selling point for restaurants to be easily recognized as a local business, because there is such a strong urge from consumers who want to eat locally. Most people don’t have the time or resources to grow and prepare their own food for every meal, or simply just want to go out to eat once in a while, so eating at a local restaurant that gets their food from local farms, is the next best option. Here are some great quotes and profiles of some of the various reasons that people like to eat local.

With such a strong urge and push from the community to support local businesses, and to eat local food from local restaurants, the challenge becomes finding these local restaurants.  That is why our goal at The Seattle Umbrella is to take the research out of this process for consumers. When people see our logo in a restaurant window, they know that the business is “Certified Local” and is a great place to eat. Also when they come to our website online by searching for example, “local restaurants in Seattle”, they will have an entire directory of certified local businesses in Seattle.

With that being said, we encourage you to check out a few of the first “Certified Local” restaurants in Seattle.  The first is actually a meal planning and delivery service called My Chef By Request. They provide healthy and gourmet meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner and even snacks that are all natural and produced local in your area. They have nutritious meals for any goal weather it is simply to eat healthy, eat local, or lose weight, and the best part is THEY DELIVER! We encourage you to check them out at www.mychefbyrequest.com for great food right from the Seattle area.

Next, we feature the Paragon, where you will dine on Seattle’s finest cuisine created by Chef Christopher Hartfield in the comfort and lively atmosphere that only Paragon provides. We next recommend a few businesses that need no explanation, and are very sweet – Mighty-O Donuts and Cupcake Royale. For a great locally brewed beer check out Hale’s Ales, and if you are looking for a great wine bar we recommend Purple.

These are just a few of the wonderful places to eat if you are looking to eat locally. We encourage you to think locally when making your choices for eating out, and hope that you will use us as a source to find local businesses in your neighborhood.
Your friends at The Seattle Umbrella

Seattle, WA October 18th, 2009 — Dana Silverman, Owner is pleased to announce the launching of The Seattle Umbrella, LLC as a solid communication and promotion platform for local businesses of all types in Seattle to increase awareness, announce specials, and immediately communicate with customers and supporters of local businesses through the use of social media, blogging, directories, and an online database.

With over 96% of Generation Y using social media for communications, and over 80% of Twitter usage being done on mobile devices, it is very apparent that people want immediate information anywhere, anytime. On the flipside, local businesses everywhere are continually scrambling to gain market share. The challenge is that most local businesses are too small or don’t have the employees or time to effectively compete online. As a result traditional small businesses are struggling to keep up communications with their generation Y consumers.

Dana Silverman, Owner of The Seattle Umbrella LLC states, “We are excited to use our knowledge of social media, innovative technology, and immediate communication tools with local businesses in Seattle. Unfortunately to date many if not most Seattle local businesses have provided limited online communication with their Generation Y consumers. We believe that by providing our knowledge and communication tools and collaborating with our clients that we will provide significant growth and increased short and long term profitability for our client partners.”

The Seattle Umbrella, LLC provides proprietary and customized social media solutions and communication tools for the rapid increase in communication and visibility for local businesses in Seattle. In addition the company provides a recognizable logo to clients for easy recognition of “certified local business” and a directory of local businesses for consumers to think local first when choosing who to do business with.

About Dana Silverman:

Dana Silverman grew up in Bellingham, WA and moved to Seattle in early 2006. He has been a strong supporter of local businesses, but always had trouble determining which businesses were truly local. In 2009 Mr. Silverman launched The Seattle Umbrella LLC as an online directory and certification company for local businesses in Seattle. He also saw an immediate need for small businesses to be in communication with his generation (Generation Y). This is why the company is largely social media and blog (RSS) based. This year, 2009, The Seattle Umbrella hopes to have 100 local businesses signed up, and is aiming for ten times that amount in 2010. From 2005 – 2009 Dana Silverman has worked on marketing and promotions for a Seattle based company – Tattva’s Herbs. Since his arrival, Tattva’s Herbs’ customer base has nearly doubled. Prior to Tattva’s Herbs, Mr. Silverman was a full time student at Western Washington University studying business and marketing.

For more information about The Seattle Umbrella LLC visit www.theseattleumbrella.com or call (206) 659-8849.

First of all, we want to thank all of you again for the overwhelming support we have been receiving. We are pleased to announce that we have had our first three businesses sign up and join up for our services. We have also received over 100 fans on facebook, and 100 followers on twitter in just a few short days.

The three businesses that we are proud to be involved with are Tattva’s Herbs, Attractology, and Seattle Sound Carpentry.

Please check out the above websites and support all of these businesses as they are great local companies. We are very honored to be involved with such wonderful local businesses and be able to help promote their services. We are going to keep this short and sweet, but just wanted to thank you for your support and remind you to support local businesses in Seattle!

We are thinking of The Seattle Umbrella as a project in the sense that we are experimenting with ideas that we feel will help drive success. On that note, projects are often improved with a pool of ideas, suggestions, etc. Basically, we want to design and tweak The Seattle Umbrella project to the specifications of the people it will effect – Local Businesses!

So far our idea is basic in a sense that we are utulizing the combination of hosting a central site for people to search for businesses in Seattle, as well as using new technology and social media to maximize the exposure of these businesses. However, this is just the beginning and The Seattle Umbrella Project is still in the early stages and has a lot of growing to do. We have some exciting ideas in store, and encourage you to keep checking back, and spread the word!

So please give us your ideas, so that we can all enjoy and expand this unique, beautiful, and amazing city that we live in.

-Dana Silverman
The Seattle Umbrella

We have many new and exciting ideas in store, and are genuinely looking forward to meeting all of you and helping your business succeed. Buying local is important for many reasons, and as we are learning we are also gaining encouragement to focus our efforts on promoting local businesses in Seattle.

We are very lucky to live in such a beautiful and diversified city, and we at The Seattle Umbrella are deeply committed to keeping it that way. Local businesses are what gives our city character and we are proud to be in Seattle.

To conclude our first blog post, we again just want to thank all of you for your support and for visiting the site. Be sure to stay tuned for the many exciting things to come and sign up for our Free Local Buying Guide.

Wishing you all the very best Seattle has to offer,

The Seattle Umbrella team