Most Small Businesses Can Do their Own SEO; It Just Takes Elbow Grease Over the Long Haul

I believe that every small businessman or woman needs to take the time to educate him or herself just a bit in the "art" of SEO. I say art because Google does NOT release its recipe/algorithm for determining which sites will rank when people search using a given keyword(s) set. Now, that having been said, we do have some reliable information/premises to work with. First, we have what Google tells us, the public, it thinks is important and what its algorithm looks for. Second, we can test our theories about what works through experiments (I prefer this method over all others, or at least I give it the most weight). And finally we can analyze currently well-ranked sites.

While it is true that links are still very imporant, they are increasingly less important than genuine "user engagement", which I explain briefly in the next paragraph.

This "user engagement" is probably the most important factor in SEO going forward. You provide Google access to your site so that it can track, monitor and analyze what website visitors (i.e. IP addresses) are actually doing on your website. Basically, it means hundreds (or thousands etc.) of IP addresses (which Google has tracked and recorded as being associated with legitimate user activity), spending lots of time on a particular website. That's it. That's the crux of it. There is likely no more foolproof way for Google to determine if a given website is useful and relevant for a given keyword(s) set. The webmaster for such site will place Google's custom Javascript directly into their site so that Google will have all of this information. Essentially: you're lifting up your skirt and letting Google have a look at everything that going on with your site. You have no way to fool them (well, in the main part you've got no practical or economic way to do something like that). I can explain more if you call/hire me. I do not, however, give a free course on SEO over the phone during an initial consultation.

I've got a few recommendations on how to begin your learning journey in this area (and these two "starting" points are also good for persons who think they've got a good idea of what the "game" involves). I've got two starting points for you: one a book, and two a youtube video (my own). The book is "The Art of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization", by Eric Enge. And the youtube video (a very fast nutshell, cut-to-the-chase, synopsis) is here (but I don't spend much tiem on user engagement in this video, so bear that in mind): SEO Basics.

One of the first things I do whenever any web design client walks in the door is consider how competitive the landscape is going to be for their main keyword sets. In fact, just out of curiosity I can't help but ponder what a given business will be facing when they try to "get found" on Google (i.e. the new yellow pages, of course Google is more than that but it is an important point: they are the global yellow pages now).

Saving the best for last: one reason I'm a good choice as your DR-related SEO services firm is that I've already got a good stock of domains and links which relate to the Dominican Republic and certain cities within the country. These links/sites are 100% legitimate, honest, "whitehat", and have a previous history and current links to them from other Dominican Republic sites. That is, I already have the particular type of ammunition you're looking for. I have spent a good six months researching and acquiring domains and links relating to the DR and its cities. This is something that one has to do over time, slowly but surely. Further, it is not enough to have links, you have to have links from sites which have keywords relating to your subject matter in them. And those domains which link to you need to themselves be on the receiving end of links that have the correct keywords in the anchor text. What is "anchor text"? Let me give you an example. The underlined, slightly blue text which follows is "anchor text": Spanish Language Websites for the Dominican Republic and Colombia. That page which the text just prior to this sentence "links" to is now on the receiving (read "good") end of a link with text which is quite clear about what it relates to.

You can discuss your app or website idea with me for free, just visit my contact page and call or email anytime. (PLEASE NOTE: If you do call first, please also send an initial email as well because when I work I normally like to turn all my phones off.)