In the beginning of July, my company decided to hire an SEO consultant to help us with a few problems we are having getting some of our content indexed. Since we launched a new version of our sites, we went from over 15k people a month to under 6k. Thats a big problem.

So we did the natural thing, started addressing the problem and after a good amount of frustration we got help. We spoke to a bunch of the best names in the industry, and chose a young company out started by a few people with varying degrees of experience in the SEO industry, but they were aggressive, defensive of the skills and passionate about what they could deliver.

We recieved an unbelieveably thorough site audit, which we were ecstatic about. Dozens of little tweaks, major architecture issues and some rather obvious stuff that we just needed a fresh set of eyes to notice. We implemented almost all the recommended changes, along with some other tweaks we unconvered as I began to implement them. They were a huge help and awesome to work with.

The thing is, I know SEO. I’ve been doing it for 3 years. I’ve been quietly attending conferences and workshops since 2005, I’ve built a company around getting found online, I know how to do this - successfully. (search “providence restaurants” - thats all me) But when crafting an entire Content Management System, from scratch there is so much to do. So much to keep in mind, and so many hundreds of little things that can screw up your rankings, or take you off the map completely.

We came off the map. We had some high profile rankings in the top 3 of Google, lots of traffic, only to fall out of the top 100.

Crawling back is an art. Crafting a site that the engines can dig is like making an elaborate painting. There is a proven technique to make the right brush strokes. There are certain types of paint and canvas that are better than others, but when its all said in done, you have to make the strokes, on the canvas, with the paint and bring it all together into something beautiful.

There is no secret forumula, it isn’t witchcraft but its certainly not a science. You have to do all the little things right, through some magic and hope in there, and wait for the bots. Its kind of like the invasion of Zion, only you want a nice picnic waiting for them.

There seems to be an interesting problem developing that most of the major SEO firms, organizations and analysts are missing - difficulty of inclusion. Its the term I’m giving to the amount of steps, and relative difficulty that it takes to get your business listed on major search engines and in local directories.

I’m going to outline some of the problems small businesses face, although not complete, but this is what I’m working on trying to fix every day.

• Local Business Databases - We have tried and used several different data providers. (ALL of the big ones) and unless you are using an extremely complicated importing script and combining every single database you can muster you are going to have an embarrasingly incomplete database. Yelp does a very good job including everything it can, but it still isn’t perfect. And thats just my problem as a publisher. There are hundreds of thousands of small businesses missing from all these databases, and that means they aren’t getting found online. At all. If I am opening a new business, or I have a business thats been around for years, I have to first make sure that I am being included in these data lists before I can even start to think about optimizing my listings. The folks at getlisted.org are doing a cool thing, but I’ve yet to come across anyone who is using it (and our company doesn’t get updates from getlisted and we have 900k businesses listed across our network - why is that ?) The small business world needs a uniquitous listing solution across all possible local listings - an openID for small businesses if you will.
• Learning - I am Joe the Plumber, I have a fleet of trucks, I have insurance on those trucks, I have 12 employees, I have workers compensation insurance, I have tools, I have angry customers, I have happy customers, My boiler just broke and my kids want new tricycles. I have a ridiculous amount of stuff going on in my life and I just found out when you search for plumbers in MyTown my competition gets 80% of the phone calls. WTF? What do I do now? I could spend a few hours scowering the internet and reading blogs about how to set up my LBC listing on Google and in Yahoo, and submit to GetListed. (there are alot of great resources out there) But if I don’t know these blogs, its gonna take me a couple hours just to find them, then its gonna take some time to find the article I need. It could take just a few minutes, but if I’m still using my hotmail account I probably don’t know what a blog even really is. And I have a long way to go if I don’t know what a blog is. Quick reality check for all you local search bloggers, the average small business owner still doesn’t have a website, heard about twitter on cnn, reads the local newspaper and is 47. Sure my generation has grown up with basic knowlege of the internet but if the internet is a foreign world to you, how are you going to succeed in it. You won’t make a very good French diplomat if you can’t speak French We need easier tools, and better knowledge bases for small business owners. Again, more ubiquity
• Depth vs Breadth - I want to be listed first in google, first in yahoo and on every local search directory that is applicable. In the yellow pages world, all I have to do is spend more money and buy the biggest add. Boom, more business than I can handle.  In the Google world, there is soo much more that needs to be done to succeed. You need quality relevant content, you need links, you need a good domain name, you need all of these other factors, many of which you can’t just buy. And thats just Google. There are whole lists compiled of what to do for each search engine. I can spend many days and go down the checklist for just one. There is so much to do.
• Options - If you give a person 12 options they’re more likely to pick none. There are too many places to advertise, there are too many places to start. First you have to pick one, and then you get going. There needs to be a uniquitous place to start, a local search center. Getlisted again is that idea, but they aren’t executing and how can they if noone esle is observing this problem (or atleast thinking about solving it).

Lastly, I as a consumer find it so frustrating when I can’t find the business I am looking for. I want their phone number, I want their menu, do they sell what I want and can I trust them? If i’m a restaurant in NYC I better be damn sure I’m monitoring my Yelp reviews and encouraging my patrons to “give me some love” But if I’m in Maine or North Carolina, where do I start? That problem exists and at some point we are going to have to solve it. Google is just going to scour the internet, or use a third party data set. Yelp just compiles data sets. But if the business I want isn’t in that data set, im screwed. We need local people to ensure data accuracy and completion. Otherwise businesses will fall through the cracks and that obviously hurts the business involved, but it also hurts us consumers. Because if the little shop that sells the computer bag I want is 2 miles away but It doesn’t come up in google for that term, and nothing else does, I’m not going to buy the bag I want - from anyone.