Since its conception, the world wide web, simply referred to today as the Internet, has taken the world by storm. From creating new opportunities for global commerce to staying in 24/7 contact with friends and family, the Internet has forever changed how we live our lives.

Just as the Internet has and continues to do as time passes, social media has made our world shrink. Websites like GeoCities, MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, Google+ LinkedIn, Vine, and Instagram have opened doors for online networking and business that weren’t there before. Citizens from countries miles apart are instantly able to share various bits of information with one another via this miracle we call the internet.

The short answer is “yes” and “no”.  I know, confusing right?

Search engine penalties can expire after a certain time period.

However, a search engine penalty expiring depends upon many factors.

The following factors can determine whether or not search engine penalties expire:

• Whether corrective action has been taken to remedy penalty
• Whether the website is deleted or domain name expires
• If the website continues to garner additional penalties
• If no corrective action is taken or performed to the website

And this leads us to discussing one of my current customers and their search engine penalty saga.

With search engines closing in on 20 years, it’s safe to say that we are still in the early years of search although there have been many advancements along the way.

We’re just now turning yet another corner in search as social and mobile search both progress beyond their infancy.

Small businesses stand the greatest chance to capitalize on learning SEO because of the markets they serve. Small businesses tend serve geographic-specific audiences.

Nevertheless, search plays a key part to every business’ marketing and advertising, not only small businesses.

Whether a small, moderate, or critical percent, ranking your website, once considered optional, has become a mandatory task that businesses can no longer afford to ignore.

If you’re a small business owner with a website, then chances are likely that a good bit of your business, outside of word of mouth and referrals, comes from search engines.

Whether Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Yelp, AngiesList, or another source, small business owners that are looking to boost their local business presence are in great need of learning about small business SEO and local SEO.

For a small business, the local market for their line of business can be quite a competitive and saturated market.

From traditional advertising avenues to search marketing and other online advertising venues, small businesses are trying to get the biggest bang for their buck when it comes to driving new business.

For some, it’s a matter of keeping the doors open.

But like any small business that relies on the web for new customers or their website to act as a 24 by 7 by 365 online salesperson, there is always the question of what is the most effective path to take in optimizing one’s website for local SEO.

One crowd believes in using a single domain to rank local SEO, while others believe in multiple domains to boost local SEO rankings.

So which party is right or wrong? Or are both parties right and wrong?

Today, I’ll take a moment to outline a few local SEO scenarios for small businesses and also discuss the pros and cons of local SEO using single domains and multiple domains.

I get a kick out of potential and existing customers who are very skeptical of my SEO process here at Kickstart Commerce.

Some are surprised to know that I hire writers to create content as a part of my content marketing strategy.

And even more shocking, potential customers are shocked to hear that I’ll hire writers as a part of their SEO strategy to rank their website.

I’m very transparent in sharing how I will go about positioning and optimizing websites for the greatest chance and opportunity for increase search rankings.

I take pride in sharing simple on-page optimization techniques and practical SEO tactics that even the most technically challenged person could implement with little guidance.

In addition, I allow potential and existing customers into my most intimate thoughts about keyword selections as well as freely provide additional insight into keywords they may have overlooked or forgotten.

And to really surprise potential customers, I walk each through my process for how I optimize my very own personal and business websites, including showing real-life keywords that are ranking and generating revenue.

One of the things about search engine optimization (SEO) that never ceases to amaze me is the sheer ability of a business to underestimate the long-term consequences of their zig-zag, one-time SEO decisions.

What I mean by zig-zag decisions is a business’ ability to zig to implement the hottest or latest fad in SEO only to zag when the next best SEO tactic arrives for all to partake.

One of the problems with this type of SEO strategy is that it leaves you open and vulnerable to the long-term impact of negative SEO should the tactic become too popular and deemed black-hat SEO by search engine algorithms.

When driving more traffic and business to a small business website, most small business owners dread SEO much like the plague, especially when doing SEO yourself.

I mean, really, where does a small business owner begin when doing SEO themselves?

Rather than determining the real pros and cons of do-it-yourself SEO, most small business owners opt for the traditional advertising methods of magazine ads, banner ads, newspaper ads, Craigslist, AngiesList, HomeAdvisor, etc.

But as the Internet and SEO progresses, your need and dependence on SEO to drive more business or even sustain a business is a looming issue that will not go away and must be addressed cost-effectively and timely.

It’s true that time, money, and labor always seem to find the small business owner holding the short end of the stick on one, if not all, of the previously mentioned.

For those of you that decide never to hire another SEO for anything again in your lives, today’s blog is just for you.

And for every small business owner unable to hire in-house SEO, an SEO professional, or an agency, this blog will help you attack the low-hanging actions of doing SEO yourself.

Let’s get started.