Search Engine Optimization tips for florists

“Stuff Worth Reading” is turning into a sort-of weekly round-up of articles on SEO & Internet Marketing that are relevant to retail florists. I’d go so far as to call it required reading, but that’s just me.

This time around, I’m splitting this into two parts. Over the past week, two FlowerChat members have been instrumental in outting a spammer’s efforts to hijack local florist listings on Google Maps. Darrel from La Jolla Village Florist first noticed the hijacked listings, and florist SEO superstar, Cathy Hillen-Rulloda from Avante Gardens quickly tracked down many more listings hijacked by the same spammer. [click to continue...]

Kalena Jordan of Search Engine College writes an entry-level article aimed at small business owners. She offers tips on dealing with your web designer to make sure your site is SEO friendly. She even uses florists as an example

Here are a few more articles that have come through my RSS reader that are worth a second look: [click to continue...]

Beginning this series on local search, I think it’s important to give a little definition to our topic. Local search is essentially any search activity that involves looking for products, services or information related to a certain geographical area. You might be looking for sushi near your office, a hotel near the conference you’re attending, or a florist near your Grandma’s house.

There are any number of local search providers, but as you would expect Google is the biggest player, along with Yahoo! and MSN. Each have their own Local Search divison. Interestingly, MapQuest is still the largest online mapping site, although Google Maps is gaining. [click to continue...]

I thought I was having a stroke …

Looking through florist websites in Columbus, OH, I clicked on these two links consecutively:

http://www.flowersbymel.com/

http://www.osuflowers.com/

Confused me … customers must LOVE it!

Site: A Vanity Fair Florist, Sacramento, CA

A Vanity Fair Florist in Sacramento writes:

I don’t know how I can rank higher on Google. I’m happy with my ranking on yahoo, but I’m aware that most people use google more than yahoo.
I appreciate your review of my site.

They are currently #3 on Yahoo! for “Sacramento Florist,” but are a distant second page result on Google and don’t appear in the Google Local box. Clearly, something needs to be fixed. [click to continue...]

One of my favourite people ever, not to mention favourite florists, is Cathy Hillen-Rulloda. I think she hates it when I say that in public … but, that’s the price she has to pay for being awesome.

In addition to being featured in an article on small business online success on Search Engline Land, Cathy was highlighted earlier this week as a Mid-Market Hero for her good SEO practices.

Good for you, Cathy!

Site: Boulder Blooms, Boulder, CO

Boulder Blooms scores many points for their efforts to personalize their web presence. You can’t leave this site without feeling like you’ve connected even a little bit with the shop team. At the same time, the personal touches can leave the site feeling a little rough around the edges.

The home page real estate is mostly occupied by a large picture of the smiling staff members in an empty field with a mountain in the distance. It doesn’t hurt that the staff are easy on the eyes, too. Personal? Yes! Colorado? Heck, ya! Floral? … Sadly, no. It’s not until you scroll down past the staff image, the “Best of the Knot” text and the large statement about same day deliveries that you finally learn about the business: “Boulder Blooms is a Boulder florist specializing in incredible floral designs and fresh flowers!” Nice intro - it’s just a shame it’s located at the bottom edge of my 22″ monitor. [click to continue...]

For many internet users “search” = going to Google or Yahoo! and typing in a few words or a question about what they are looking for. Despite more having internet access commonly available at home and work, many users also “search” for a website address, not understanding the difference between the search box and a browsers address bar. (Hence the evolution of browser address bars allowing some search capabilities, and the new all-in-one Omnibox from Google’s Chrome browser.)

It’s no wonder, then, that users are often surprise to learn of different types of search. Search = search, right?

Vertical search refers to searching a certain type, theme or medium of content. Vertical search engines are nothing new, and major search engines offer various types of vertical search. Some examples include travel search engines and news aggregators. Google offers a variety of specialized vertical searches to deliver different themes and types of content like news, blogs, books & finance. They even have a search restricted to Linux content!

Over the past year Google, MSN, Yahoo! and Ask have been trying to deliver more relevant results (and deal with the slow user adoption of vertical search) by introducing blended results that serve to mix some vertical search content into the traditional ten text results. Often called Blended or Universal results, this new display offers florists an incredible opportunity to appear multiple times in the search results by providing different types of content on the web.

In this new series we’ll look at some of the verticals that are most relevant to florists: Local Search, Image Search, Video Search and Blog Search.