About SEO Memphis

SEO Memphis came about purely by accident. This website was originally created almost four years ago as a test. I had been teaching myself SEO for about six months, reading and testing everything I could to better grasp the concept of search engine optimization. I built this website to see if I could outrank established local firms that were supposedly in the SEO business. It took less than a few months(like wine, new websites need to age) and I didn‘t put more than a few days work into it. In fact I forgot all about this website until about 4 months later someone contacted me wanting SEO services. Most of the firms I beat out in the rankings are primarily web design companies that sell SEO services as an added service. SEO Memphis is different in we are focused primarily on the optimization of websites to get them in the top slots to capture organic search traffic. We offer web design as a secondary service.

Let’s face it. What good is a website if no one sees it? Web designers can talk all day about the importance of on page ranking factors which are necessary for optimizing a website, and they are correct. Meta tags, title tags, link structure, internal link structure, keywords all of this is necessary. However, in the grand design of SEO along with the art and science that goes into it, on page factors are miniscule in comparison to the necessary off page elements and work needed to rank a website, especially in a highly competitive niche. This is what SEO Memphis is about - implementing the necessary off page strategies to rank websites locally for Memphis business owners.

About The Future Of Local Search

More and more SEO’s are beginning to focus on local search rather than national or global search because it is a booming market with less competition. Local business owners need help in optimizing their websites to gain the top slots on Google and the other search engines. However, there is a new trend among SEO’s and it could cost business owners more in the long run if they do not properly optimize their website. SEO’s are beginning to rank websites for keyword terms in local markets and they aren’t the websites of traditional business owners. They are owned by SEO’s, people who specialize in SEO like me. They have the skills to outrank traditional business owner websites and take the top slots for any given local keyword search term. They then contact business owners with an offer to advertise on the SEO's top ranked website. In other words, they send their traffic to the business owner for a monthly fee. The SEO owns both the website and the traffic, forever. Or until another website moves up with better off page optimization and outranks his.

This is great for a plumbing business with a website buried six pages deep in the Google index that never sees any traffic but what about the plumbers currently ranked in the number one, two and three slots? Their traffic will soon come to an end unless they properly optimize their sites and keep optimizing their website to fight off the competition from trained SEO‘s. I think Memphis business owners relying on local search need to be aware that it may not be too far into the future that your competition will be coming from more than a traditional rival. Other competition for your local search traffic may come from an experienced SEO "gunfighter" that understands the SEO game far better than Memphis business owners and he will be selling his traffic to the highest bidder.

Phil Hatley
phil@searchengineoptimizationmemphis.com