Texas SEO Company Blog

Listen up, Texas. Search engine optimization (SEO) is not as difficult as some people make it out to be. On the level of difficulty, it’s somewhere between playing Tic-Tac-Toe and rocket science. The key is know what to do and how to do it then to follow that up with a successful game plan.

Geographical SEO is still a virtually untapped area. If you are specifically targeting a geographic region like Texas then your search engine optimization strategy must involve geographic key terms. The state name is just one place to start. You’ll also want to use names of cities and towns, counties, zip codes, etc.

Keep in mind that search engine optimization strategies are not just on page techniques. You have on page SEO and off page SEO. On page SEO typically consists of keywords, internal links between your pages, graphics and images, meta and alt tags, etc. Off page SEO is primarily how you go about building links and performing anchor text management.

If you learn how to make your on page SEO and off page SEO work together then you can build a website that is successfully SEOd for Texas business. Why not start today?

Generally speaking, links from relevant websites within your niche are quality links as far as the search engines are concerned and the search engines don’t really consider geographic matters with regard to those links. One exception is in real estate. Because many real estate agents were linking to each other outside of practical geographical areas that would benefit either agent (for instance, an agent in Florida was linking to an agent in California), the search engines reasoned that these types of links were unnatural and quit counting them.

This also applies to real estate agencies in separate cities within the same state - in this case, Texas.

So if you are a real estate agent in El Paso and you enter a three-way linking arrangement with another agent in Houston and one in Dallas thinking this is going to help you, don’t count on it. The search engines are smart enough to figure out that your geographically targeted customers are not prospects for the other agents. A person looking for a house in Dallas is not likely to also be looking for one in Houston. So those types of linking arrangements are sifted through, sorted out, and not given the same credit that businesses in other niches with the same arrangement might receive.

Is that fair? Well, you know what your mother told you about fairness. That’s just the way it is.

Get the real low-down on Texas SEO.

SEO in Texas is a lot like Johnny Cash’s song “I’ve Been Everywhere”. Wherever it is, it’s still the same. There are just a few minor differences and then only if you are doing local geotargeting with your SEO.

Whether it’s El Paso, Lubbock, Brownsville, Houston, Dallas, Waco, Big Bend, Amarillo, Nacogdoches, Texarkana, Mabank, Corsicana, Meridian, Plano, Fort Worth, Midland, Austin, San Antonio, Waxahachie, or anywhere in the great state of Texas, SEO in Texas is SEO in Texas and it looks pretty much the same.

There is one proviso. If you are geotargeting your business for local consumers then your SEO will look a darn sight different than the guy living in El Paso - unless, of course, your business is in El Paso. The difference is that geotargeting relies on the same principles no matter where you live, but the actual geotargeted search terms will be different. In other words, the geotargeted search terms for El Paso are pretty much the same no matter what business you are in unless you want to narrow your geotargeting to specific sections of the city.

Rural geotargeting in Texas may be drastically different depending on the county you live in. It largely depends on the size of your service area. Do you cover a three-county area in Central Texas or one large county in West Texas? That makes a big difference.

But even if you geotarget your business, you will need to SEO your Texas website for specific business terms related to your niche. Again, the principles for doing this are the same no matter what business you are in. The difference lies in the actual, specific key terms you want to target. And that’s the low down on the hoe down in the Texas SEO shindig traveling dancing barn. Did I say that right?

Geographical optimization techniques can cover a full range. But can you optimize your Texas-based website’s meta tags for a geographically targeted site visitor?

Yes, but you need to be careful here. There are some dos and don’t and, of course, the occasional gray areas. Here are some things to think about before you start geographically optimizing those meta tags for Texas:

• First, determine whether your site is geographically targeted or not. No sense targeted meta tags geographically if the site isn’t targeted geographically.
• Don’t include any keywords, geographical or otherwise, in your meta tags that do not also appear in your body content. You especially want to stay away from stuffing keywords into your keywords meta tag.
• Speaking of keyword stuffing, don’t do it. It won’t help.
• Make sure that your geographically targeted meta tags cover only the geographic area that you target in your business. In other words, if you are a Dallas-based real estate agent that only deals in real estate in North Dallas neighborhoods then don’t try targeting your keywords for Fort Worth, Houston, or West Dallas, and certainly not for the entire state of Texas.
• For every page of your website, pick a primary and a secondary keyword and use only those two keywords in your title and description tags on each page.
• Make sure your meta tags are different on every page. Don’t use the same meta tags for every page on your website.
• Only include keywords in your keyword meta tag that appear in your body content at least 4 times. If a geographical kewyord doesn’t appear at least 4 times in your body content then you should rewrite your content until it does.

Meta tag optimization is not an exact science. Not every search engine pays attention to meta tags and those that do may also analyze your page content for your SERP listings. Still, you can influence your search engine listings with proper meta tags that are geographically targeted as long as those meta tags match the keywords in your body content. Don’t stuff keywords and make sure what you use is relevant.

There are many ways to optimize a website for local business. Local SEO boils down, though, to just one thing: How well you are able to reach consumers in your own back yard.

The first step to local SEO is to define your target market. Is it Texas? Dallas? Houston? A suburb of one of the urban centers throughout the state? Is it a three-county rural area in West Texas? How about a zip code?

Yes, you can optimize your website around a zip code.

The curious thing about zip codes is that they can cover a small area within a major city like Dallas, El Paso, or Houston, or they can cover a large geographic area like Presidio in West Texas. Before you start optimizing your site for zip codes you should first determine whether the zip code area you want to target is large enough, too large, or just right for your business. It may be that you want to target more than one zip code.

When you narrow down your geographic target area, optimizing your Texas business website for the right zip codes is just a matter of including your business address(es) on each page of your website. There is more than one way to do this:

1. You can include each physical address in the footer of your page (but if you have a presence in every county of Texas, I wouldn’t recommend this)
2. You can add a list of zip codes, city names, and counties that you serve to a certain section of each web page on your website
3. You can add a service area page and include the list of zip codes you serve or a list of physical locations if your business exists in many counties and zip codes across the state
4. Include your service area and zip code in your tag line or in the header of your website
5. Build more than one website - one for each area you serve

Which method of zip code optimization is right for you? It depends. You probably want to consult with a knowledgeable expert in Texas SEO techniques and get a free evaluation of your needs before you decide. Why not? There is no risk.

Geographical SEO is an idea whose time has come. Whether you need your company’s website SEOd for Austin or Dallas, you need the very best geotargeting. Texas SEO is about Texas; it isn’t about Oklahoma. But you don’t need me to tell you that, do you?

SEO is not one, big cut out that you can apply to every situation. Each company has their own needs and customers to target. There are many variables to understanding proper SEO and making it work for you. Geotargeting is just one variable.

Some of the things you need to think about in terms of your geographical SEO are:

• What are the most important non-geographical keywords for you?
• What is the size and shape of the geographical area that you are targeting? (I’m targeting Texas in case you didn’t know)
• Do you want to use zip codes, city names, county names, or GPS coordinates in your targeting efforts (maybe a combination of the above)
• How many pages do you need SEOd?

There are many more variables you can (and should) consider. This is just a good starting point. SEO for your Texas company need not be difficult, but it does need to be targeted. Think about that when you are putting together your targeted marketing strategy.