What follows are 10 basic tips that you can utilize to help a local business in their search engine optimization efforts.

1) Ensure the client has a website.

This may seem obvious, but it’s very important that your client have a website. From a search engine optimization standpoint, you need to have a website that you will want to have rank as high as possible in the search engines.

2) Request that the client provide you with the materials to create content for the site.

Ask the client to give you materials from which you can create website content. This is very important because you want to have something to work with.

3) Develop a strong press release schedule that links back to the website.

Speak your client about developing a press release schedule that will not only enable you to generate what are called back links to your clients website, but also help spread the word about the products and services that your client is providing.

4) Discover what keywords are most relevant to the local business.

You’ll need to spend some time figuring out what keywords need to be targeted to help your client reach the widest range of individuals and to help your client boost their search engine presence.

5) Create content that will point back to your client’s website.

Make sure that you create a variety of different content pieces that you will spread throughout the Internet that ultimately point back to your clients website.

6) Have a plan in place to deal with inevitable search engine gyrations.

Given the fact that search engines have a tendency to gyrate and spin the results, you need to have a plan in place to deal with that.

7) Make sure that your client has a presence in the social media sphere.

It is very important that your client develop a presence within the social media sphere. The reason why is because this is where a lot of people spend their time and where search engines are looking for relevant back links.

8) Ask your client to generate interviews that can be placed online.

This creates even more content that points back to the site.

9) Request permission to take videos and photos that highlight your client’s business.

Multi-media materials are loved by search engines.

10) Create more websites that point back to the primary client website.

This helps ensure you get more backlinks.

If you are somebody who is just getting started as a search engine optimization consultant, you really need to make a very important decision regarding whether or not you plan to be a business owner, or if you plan to be a tactician who is essentially imprisoned by the business you are starting. Let’s explain this in more detail so that it becomes clearer.

Let’s assume for a moment that you generate appointments with perspective search engine optimization customers. From those 10 appointments, you actually get one assignment. Now, you would ordinarily have to turn your attention to doing all the work that’s required to actually fulfill whatever it is you promised the customer. Stop and think about that for a moment. Is that ultimately the best use of your time? What if you had the ability to outsource the actual search engine optimization work? Instead of you actually doing the technical work itself, your focus would be on following up with the customers you’ve visited as well as seeking out new customers and generating more business.

This is a principle that more people who get involved with search engine optimization from a consulting standpoint need to take into consideration. If you are able to continue focusing on finding new customers, you will be able to grow your business exponentially faster than if every time you found a new customer you had to stop looking for new ones while you did the work that was required by the customer that you just found. If you really take a moment to think about this, you’ll begin to see how much sense it makes.

Here’s the bottom line: anybody who gets involved with search engine optimization needs to take a very serious look at how they are spending their time. If you notice that you are spending more time actually doing the work that you are selling to clients, then you really need to think about outsourcing the technical details of whatever it is and needs to be done so that you can fully turn your attention to continuing to attract new customers to your business.