Grocery Store SEO Advice | POS Software Advice

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Grocery Store Loyalty!
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Social Media is Taking Over
When I cook I use all of my mom’s “secret” recipes, supposedly these recipes have been in our family since my great-great-great grandmother! But between us, I sometimes go online and look up recipes on how to make a certain dish (tell my mother I’ll deny it!). It’s not that I don’t enjoy my family’s [...]
No-Line Checkout Lanes?!
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LiquiGlide Can Speed Up Your Ketchup!
I tend to write informative blogs, but today I thought I would change it up a little. So I’m going to write about something that I think is really interesting! Anyways, how many times have you guys had to pound the bottom of your ketchup bottle in order to get that last bit for your [...]
Fruit Drinks Have More Sugar Than Soda!
People are always trying to lose weight or live healthier lives by trying to remove anything that is unhealthy. They take away chips, sodas, cookies, and basically anything that tastes good! But what if I told you that most people are actually forgetting to remove one item from their diet that is worse than soda! [...]
The Cure to Obesity Could Be A Fat Tax!
There have been a lot of theories of how a country can beat the obesity problem that the world is facing. But I most recently heard a theory that I liked but at the same time I didn’t. A research facility in England believes that they found the cure to obesity…….a fat tax! Yeah you [...]

Steps to the #1 spot on Google – Part II

Dec 092010

Part II commencing…

In my last blog we covered the on-site SEO tactics that will get your site recognized and ranked on the first few pages of the major search engines. On-site SEO is definitely the most important step to getting recognized on Google. So if you haven’t read my previous blog post I would highly suggest going back, reading it, and making the necessary changes before you move on to these steps.Ok. So you have a list of key words, and you’re ready to get your site to that top spot. I wish I could say go grab a pound of coffee and a giant cup, cause we are going to get you on that top spot TODAY. But I’m not one for making promises I can’t keep. It takes time to get that top spot, especially when your store is in a big city with lots of competition.

Below are the secrets of off-site SEO that will bump your site up to those top spots. Off-site SEO should be be done with a long term view, as it is unnatural for a site to get hundreds of links in one day, and then never get links again. The search engines know that there are link brokers out there, and they know the sites that these link brokers are linking too. So that offer for 1,000 links that sounds too good to be true–it is. Bellow, I’m going to let you in on some of the best places to go to create links and get that inbound traffic:

Create social media profiles:
1. Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, and GoogleBuzz
  1. Go out and create connections in the community
  2. Promote your Social Media at your store
  3. Only post valuable content to your customers
  4. Expand and grow building your network
Create an innovative, informative, and interesting Blog:
1. WordPress, or Blogger are both great places
2. Write quality content on your blog frequently (once a week)
3. Link to other blogs
4. Comment on other related blogs
5. Use pictures, videos, or even audio to spice up your blog
6. Integrate your blog into your website
Bookmark your Blog, and your site on social bookmarking sites:
1. Include the keywords in the title of your bookmark, that your site page relates to
2. del.icio.us, Digg, Reddit, Furl, StumbleUpon
Submit your store location to these high PageRank sites:
1. Insiderpages.com, foursquare.com, meetup.com, yellowpages.com, yahoo.local.com, bing.local.com, local.com, google.com
Directories are also a great place to submit your site for links:
1. Only submit your site to directories that have a high PageRank, and are applicable to your business
2. Sad to say the best directories are paid directories, although I am not a huge fan of paying for directories
3. Many of the best directories require an email, or a reason why they should include you
  1. Here is a brief list of directories to get you started
  2. DMOZ Directory, Yahoo Directory, Librarians’ Interx Directory, Starting Point Directory, Business Directory, Joe Ant Directory
Article writing and submission – a great source for link building juice:
1. Write articles about your industry, and use the keywords
2. I would suggest that you write about 5 different articles, and submit them to different article submission sites
3. Don’t just write for the purpose of filling it with keywords and linking to your website, but create quality content
  1. EZineArticles , GoArticles, Article DashBoard, Articlesbase, ArticleCity
Press Releases are the last source for links I’m going to discuss:
1. Write press releases for news worthy items that involve your business
2. Grade your press release at pressrelease.grader.com
3. Make sure that you write in a formal writing style
4. Here are a list of great PR Sites, but sadly some cost money
5. PRLog.org, Free-Press-Release.com, OpenPR.com, www.npr.org, betanews.com, directionsmag.com

Lastly, a great tool that I use when I’m creating links is the SEOmoz toolbar. These steps are not easy, and it takes time for you to build up these links. But ultimately, if you’re faithful in generating quality content and submit only to quality sites, you will see your store climb up the ranks of the major search engines.

Now go get em’!

If you have any questions about which grocery store POS system to implement at your store, go over to www.itretail.com

Steps the the #1 spot on Google – Part I

Grocery Store SEO Advice No Responses »

Dec 012010

Three steps to get your grocery store listed on the first pages of Google.

Hey! Don’t leave, this isn’t a scam I promise! I know the capitalization of the word free is really repulsive, but I was just trying to make a point. Today I’m going to present a brief tutorial on SEO for grocery stores. Currently many grocery stores are not implementing

SEO tactics, and thus are losing potential customers to the competition that is. SEO stands for search engine optimization. By applying these SEO tactics to your website you prove to the major search engines that your site is relevant to the search’s that your potential customers are executing. SEO is the most efficient and cost effective way to obtain new customers, and thus develop and build your company. Without further delay here are three quintessential points in relation to grocery SEO that will get your store the recognition that it deserves:

1. Keyword’s – What does your grocery store specialize in (organic food, natural food, vitamins, general merchandise etc.) And what type of store are you (hint: grocery store). If you need help developing a list of keywords here are a few tools that I find useful: Keyword Research, Keyword Tool. Do not have more than 10 key words to start out, and only optimize for more than 2 key words or phrases per page. Oh, and the best keywords are long tailed keywords. Now strategically place these keywords around your website.

a. Root Domain Name includes one keyword. (e.g. keyword.com)

b. H1, H2, H3 Tags – include your keywords and phrases in all headers

c. Anchor Text – Have several anchor text with your keywords that link to other well-ranked sites, which include your keywords (not your competitors).

d. Alt Image Title Tags – Include keywords for alternate image tags.

e. Include keywords within the first sentences of each paragraph, especially in the first 300 characters.

2. Page Title - This is the downfall of many websites. Search engines do not give credit to title keywords larger than 70 characters so keep your title precise. Limit the use conjunctions such as and/or. Bellow is the way that I would suggest you set up your page title:

3. Location – Consumers will search for your grocery stores in your surrounding area. Submit your store location to Google, Yahoo!, and Bing. Dedicate an entire page to store locations. On this page have a map, as well as a link to Google Maps so that your customers can easily generate directions to your store. On the front page of your website, near the top have a “Find your Store” box, or a “Store Locations” box, where they can input their zip code to find the closest store to them. This step gets you on the first page of Google, if you optimize your listing correctly (keywords). I feel like what I have written may be to some a bit overwhelming, so I am going to stop here and ask if there are any questions. Does anybody need help? Or should I continue?

If you have any questions about grocery POS software, please direct them to luke at lukehenry@itretail.com or go over to www.itretail.com