Search engine marketing, especially in large metropolitan areas, is becoming increasingly competitive. With more and more business owners and professionals becoming aware of the benefits of ranking high for relevant search terms, it is becoming increasingly challenging to rank well.

The typical “formula” for good on-page optimization looks something like this (not an all-inclusive list, but does touch on some of the main points):

• A search relevant URL
• A “flat” html file structure
• Search friendly html file names
• Relevant page titles
• Quality, unique content  (and plenty of it)
• Good on-page linking with relevant anchor text

Then you go into the off-page factors like:

• Local profiles (Google, Bing, etc.)
• Quality, relevant Inbound links (I have issues with this one, as it still seems that spammy links benefit results. I guess my definition of spammy differs from that of Google.)
• Blogging
• Active social networking profiles

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