SEO for a static WordPress website? Targetting local keywords?

Basically, I'm going to try and create a stable offline business by providing a certain offline service, to customers which I plan to partially get through organic Google traffic. These customers would only be based locally. I have researched quite a few really nice local keywords, some with 4K+ monthly searches and I'm not really sure how to go about this.

I've decided to use WordPress for the website because of the ease of use and because it's SEO friendly. The website contains a welcome home page as well as faq, contact, terms of service, privacy policy and services page which describes the services that are being offered. The reason for not knowing how to go about this is because the whole website is static nothing really changes on it since it's meant to be a business website. The local keywords I have researched seem to have a fairly low competition although some seem hard to dominate.

There's one professional business that keeps poping up for every keyword, this business is not always the first link but most of the times it is. The business has been around for at least the past 5 years; according to WebCompAnalyst it has around 1000 backlinks, these backlinks seem to be low quality with most being PR0 static webpage domains with no real content, quite a lot of them are multiple links from the same domain, although the business has so many backlinks they only seem to be targeting one keyword for which they only have 69 anchor text backlinks, they have tried other keywords but they only have around 1 to 5 anchor text backlinks per keyword.
The business has a rank position of number 10 on google for their main keyword for which they have 69 anchor text backlinks, the rest of page one for that keyword is taken over by larger, more professional businesses. There's nothing to worry about because I am not targeting this keyword. Overall the businesses website has quite a lot of pages, all static content talking about their services and what they offer.

I want to outrank this business for my chosen keywords but I'm not sure whats the best and fastest way to do this. Since this is an offline service I'm not sure what to do about backlinks, etc... Quality backlinks don't seem to be easy to find. Even though this is an offline business offering offline services I was thinking of adding a news section or maybe a tutorial section, something that could constantly be updated and used to have easier access to multiple backlinks that would actually be related to the site but then again news on a professional website that customers probably wouldn't really be bothered about? Tutorials/guide section related to the services offered would be a great way but then again because of the nature of this business it could actually ruin the service because most people would try following the tutorials and sorting out the problems they may have themselves, making me loose customers? Or this could become an advantage?

Would be great if anyone could give some advice and possible solutions. Sorry for the long post, I can't remember the last time I actually wrote this much.

I understand that as soon as I get a few anchor text backlinks for the keywords I'm targeting I will outrank my competition since the business has not really made any anchor backlinks using my keyword phrase?

Basically, I'm going to try and create a stable offline business by providing a certain offline service, to customers which I plan to partially get through organic Google traffic. These customers would only be based locally. I have researched quite a few really nice local keywords, some with 4K+ monthly searches and I'm not really sure how to go about this.

I've decided to use WordPress for the website because of the ease of use and because it's SEO friendly. The website contains a welcome home page as well as faq, contact, terms of service, privacy policy and services page which describes the services that are being offered. The reason for not knowing how to go about this is because the whole website is static nothing really changes on it since it's meant to be a business website. The local keywords I have researched seem to have a fairly low competition although some seem hard to dominate.

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You've got a lot going on and some big questions. I'll give you my 2 cents for one small part of it. You're talking about using a wordpress blog for a buisness blog which will be composed mostly of static pages.

First based on my experience, if you're planning on creating a static site I would use Xsitepro. I use Dreamweaver or just plain ole notepad for developing sites and Xsitepro produces results that often times out do Wordpress. So, if you're serious about setting up multiple offline sites, composed of 3 or 4 pages....get a copy of Xsitepro and use it... Your pages will be indexed in some cases overnight and usually stay there with little to no updating. That's my personal experience. Just make sure you use the rss function and create a xml page, ping it and submit it to the directories

However!

Wordpress offers so much and to limit yourself to a couple of pages per site is a big mistake. Many big corporations switch to a wordpress blog...using it as a CMS. There is tremendous potential in using wordpress for your offline sites that you're really missing.

If you want to create a static front page that's fine. But don't dismiss using the blog as part of your site and its entire promotion.

I find a blog is the perfect offline business platform for developing websites and I incorporate both static and regular posts.

You mentioned you have a couple of keywords...I image it wouldn't be too difficult to come up with 50 or more keywords for your niche....especially if it's localized.

This is how a the blog portion of the site would work.

Use the blog to create or build a story about the business. You can expound on any aspect of the business, create a category and post weekly or daily blog posts using your keywords. Your story could virtually be a diary of daily business happenings. People love to read about the more personal side of a business. You could profile the employees....you could follow one employee through the entire week.

I can't think of any business that you couldn't develop some sort of story around. Heck, you could even have a cagegory that focuses on the office life of the business....isn't there a hit TV show called "The Office"!

I like to chronicle various projects, jobs, cases or patients within a business or service.

Let's say your site is for a local chiropractor. You can set up the front end of the site to make it look professional....but don't dismiss developing the blog because this is where you can effectively use your keywords or keyword phrases and start getting organic traffic.

Keeping with the chiropractor example. Find a patient to blog on. Let's say he has arm pain from a ruptured disc. Have the Chiropractor or you blog weekly on the patients treatment and progress. You'll be able to use keywords for the treatment...such as "decompression therapy in Mchenry" or "muscle stimulation therapy in Mchenry Chiropractor".....you'll have enough material for a full year. Use your imagination.

Consider a hardwood flooring company.

Do the same thing, set up your static front page as an introduction to the company...make sure you have an optin form. Then you could set up some blog categories such as "materials" where you would talk about the various hardwoods, finishes etc. Or how about a "projects" category. Pick a couple of good projects to blog about in a diary form. Once again, when you're talking about oak flooring, you would use the keyword "oak flooring in Mchenry" or "hardwood floor sanding in Mchenry".....man, you have more material for an offline blog than any blog on internet marketing or some adsense blog.

You can literally blog about any aspect of any business, talking about information that those familiar with the business would probably think is uninteresting. As the website developer you're presented with an opportunity to use this information to stick important keywords or keyword phrases.

Although you mainly blogging to get your site indexed for certain keywords, by no means, dismiss the fact that people really enjoy knowing the inner workings of a company. People are nosey...they want to know the gossip and whether people are happy with a business......you can provide that information by blogging.

I've purchased and read many offline marketing guru's and nobody talks about what I just did....use this information to beat any and all competitors!

Concerning backlinks.

This forum is full of ideas and methods to get backlinks....some as white as the driven snow and others dark like midnight on a new moon look around and do some searching there are plenty of experts here on keywords.

I can tell you that a handfull of decent backlinks for most keyword phrases for offline marketing will almost always get you on page one and at the top. That being said, why don't you set up a network of blogs for your own links. Set up some blogger and wordpress.com blogs. Then there is always the old fashion method of asking for a link to your site.

You can find a some guys here offing backlink packages.....so getting backlinks should be the least of your problems....just make sure you build it into your pricing structure.

Oh well....I wasn't going to say anything about linking or backlinks...wanted to leave that to someone else.

Hope you get the idea about how you can use a wordpress blog more effectively for your offline sites!

Scott

Wow Scott.... Very impressed with your post above. You mentioned things that I think a lot of people never thought about. I for one is going to use some of the information provided.

This method (depending on where in the world you are) could even cause that you outrank sites in a not so niche market.

Thanks

ShadeDream said:

Quality backlinks don't seem to be easy to find.

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Quality backlinks are rarely a problem if you produce quality content. We use an employee to produce good quality articles. I supplied her with examples of many different variations and she can churn out about 40 or 50 variations, still good quality. She is quite a find These are then made into audios, videos and other sorts of presentations which are then distributed across the web in the offline company's name. Some of our local clients are appearing in competitive niches in the national search.

ShadeDream said:

Tutorials/guide section related to the services offered would be a great way but then again because of the nature of this business it could actually ruin the service because most people would try following the tutorials and sorting out the problems they may have themselves, making me loose customers? Or this could become an advantage?

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We find a giveaway tutorial helps. Most small business owners don't have the time to SEO, so giving the information away in return for a signup to a newsletter keeps them in touch, builds trust and often time they will come back for a quote... We also have the resources - like the article writer - that the business owner doesn't

I agree with foxriver, and I suggest you get the business to supply the blog entries but edit them before they go live... Often they will need spell checking and tweaking/rewriting for SEO.

Great posts above have really answered your question. I have done exactly what you are doing with wordpress. The front page is a static homepage with no title. I then create other pages including a /blog page where I put posts. Everytime you put out a post bookmark it everywhere. This is deep linking and will drive up the value of your blog. I also use a plug in called internal linking which automatically links to certain keywords. if you put those keywords on the front page your blog posts will link directly to the static homepage. I have found this leads to an indented listing and creates a link pyramid with your posts being localized search terms boosting your blog and home page. Hope this makes sense. You can actually rank your static page without driving any links. If you use profiles and use the blog as your page to link too you will do very well!

Some good posts up there, although I'm still not really sure what to do because the actual industry I'm going into is a little more complicated since if I blog about it, customers will end up doing the service themselves for free. Anyway never mind and thanks for your time.

Thank you http://www.blackhatworld.com/../members/61325-foxriver.html

ShadeDream said:

Some good posts up there, although I'm still not really sure what to do because the actual industry I'm going into is a little more complicated since if I blog about it, customers will end up doing the service themselves for free. Anyway never mind and thanks for your time.

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So maybe instead of doing "articles" make the stories testimonials. Thats the juice...the reason ppl buy anyways (complete with long tail keywords)