Most small business owners rely on their local market to get sales. So it is very important for small businesses to make their presence on local search engines so that you can increase your number of inbound calls. This article will cover some of the best SEO tips that will help you to rule the local search engines and increase your small business sales.
Update with original content often
While not specific to local results, this tip is still important for any website trying to get a lot of organic traffic. Search engines prioritize fresh content. So whether your aim is worldwide traffic or inbound calls from within 100 miles of your business address, updating frequently is key.
If you haven’t already, start a professional blog linked to your official website. Even companies with limited staff can generate a fresh web presence through a well-written blog by outsourcing the task to freelancers.
Localize your titles
Titles carry a lot of weight for search engines, so it is important that they accurately reflect what your page is about and, if you want local results, where your business is located. Where possible, incorporate your city or neighborhood into titles. That will grant geographic specificity to what you publish and will increase the odds that it attracts web users who are located close to where you operate.
Localize your content
While titles are certainly important for attracting local organic traffic, the rest of your content also needs local keywords for best results. References to your city, neighborhood, and community can enrich your content and make it more likely that your target audience will find your website.
Use the same language as your target audience
Be sure that the language on your site is in line with what your target audience uses. Even if terminology is in vogue for your industry, it does little good to use it if no one within 50 miles enters those words into a search bar. You can figure out which keywords are hot for your area by doing some keyword research. Figure out what type of words local customers are most likely to use when searching for your products or services.
Strike up conversations through social media
Reach out to members of your community online. Create a compelling Facebook page that fans of your business can “like,” and through which you can engage in casual conversations with potential and existing customers. Strike up conversations with users located nearby through Twitter if you notice an update that relates to a product or service you offer. This can strengthen rapport with customers and help generate additional traffic to your website.
Use local images with localized keywords
Image searches can drive a lot of traffic to your website. By including an image of your facility, team, or on-site activities, you also have the opportunity to label that image with keywords that could send local traffic to the related webpage.
List your physical address
Include your physical address on your website, not only on pages dedicated to contact information but also as a footer. That increases the chance you’ll be found by people searching locally. To enhance the creditability of your business’s web presence, check that all digital listings for your company are consistent. Listing different addresses could make your company seem less trustworthy in the eyes of customers and search engines.
Applying SEO strategies to your company website can be an effective way for a small business to reach more of the local market. By appearing in search engine results for local people seeking out the goods and services you offer, you stand a great chance of getting more inbound calls from potential customers.
About David Kendall
Twitter: 3MwindowfilmTO
says:
Having your city name in your title can make a huge difference. Generally there is a lot less competition in more specific geographic areas so if you have a physical business location having it in the Google Local search results can really help boost traffic. On a side note, I really don’t like how Google merged Google Places with Google +.
Twitter: freshtight
says:
I agree Pavel, the merging of Google Places and Google+ seems to have made things a little more difficult.
As you mentioned, David, producing fresh, industry relevant, and high-quality content is arguably the most important concept in hopes of ranking well for local results (and getting that targeted traffic to your site).
I also think that using the language of your audience is important, and if you do these two things properly (and frequently), you’ll be able to take advantage of a great deal of localized traffic.
Nice article!
Tarun Gehani recently posted..5 Tricks of the SEO Copywriter Trade
Twitter: WebDesignRoma1
says:
Creating fresh content is a very good way to get found in google, especially if you can write seo-like articles. You know, with 300+ words, right keywords in h2, b and i, alt tagged images ecc.
Unfortunately a lot of people knows that, so the web is now flooded with articles written with the only purpose of gettin higher on the serp.
Ivandesign recently posted..Come scegliere un sito web
Twitter: web_retina
says:
Nice post just gone through each and every points of this website because soon I am going to work along as the online marketer for a small business so will do all the needful things as mentioned in the article.
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After reading your blog, I think, if we use 65-70 character title all major search engines will give a positive output. because all major search engines give more priority to meta title.
MichelPaul recently posted..Yahoo Account Creator – Get Multiple Yahoo Account Creator at $5
Twitter: complearnhow
says:
Very nice informative post. Original and fresh content is always number one on the list. I also think in the age where everyone is writing for Google an article written FOR the user rather than the search engines is important.
Craig recently posted..External and Portable Hard Drive Buying Guide
Twitter: SamuraiFXTrader
says:
Social media is definitely becoming more and more important these days, especially to local businesses and their SEO. If you’re not connecting with other businesses around you and helping them promote too you are missing out. Help someone else and they will almost certainly return the favor.
Garrett recently posted..Forex Trading Recap: 11 Sep 2012 +104 Pips
Twitter: mariaconsulting
says:
David – these are awesome tips for small business owners. Many are at a disadvantage with social media because it’s either misunderstood, neglected or misused. Any business that follows your SEO tips are better off.
Maria recently posted..iPage is what works
Twitter: AGadgetsUK
says:
Social Media is definitely a must if you’re aiming for local customers. On twitter for example you can easily find people who live near your business. If other businesses in your area are also on twitter, you can follow their followers, as it’s likely that they live near by.
In the UK at least, supplying your physical address on your website is a legal requirement.
Adam recently posted..Sony Not Planning For Windows Phone 8
I never would have believed that the local market for the internet would be such a player. Five years ago I said there was no real need for local businesses for website. Now I check them online all the time.
Ken Tyler recently posted..Twilight Hooded Dress
I want to add some ideas.
I think, update the original content alone is not enough.
The best way is, update the original content with “interesting news” in it, something new, and NOT mainstream which is often written by most people.
With this, will be many visitors who come to your blog and they would be very interested to share your content in their blog, or community forum. And this course will give you a lot of natural backlink to your blog! and you must already know this will boost your rank in Google SERP.
I’ve tried it myself, and this technique works perfectly.
Hendry recently posted..Farberware 10-Piece Dishwasher Safe Cookware Set
the more targeted the more efficient i agree
John recently posted..Pierre Investissement 7 1er trimestre 2012
but imho don’t overdo seo, write for your audience before writing for google
if you do so, your readers will do the backlinks and seo for you
Twitter: APTINT
says:
Almost all of our SEO customers target a specific region, whether it’s two counties in a state, or a region like the “Mid-Atlantic.” We’ve found it’s especially effective for food-related companies – we do online marketing and social media for a local farm and a restaurant. We sit down with them and ask them to circle their service area on a map, and highlight specific locations they would like to target. That can guide a lot of our blogging, and it can be great to cover local events. Sometimes local online publications and websites (like Patch.com) will link to that blog article. We’ve seen that work particularly well for our customer Deep Run Farms.
Lee Emmons recently posted..Corporate Video for Absolute Perfection, Inc.
The content is very important in any aspect of online marketing one should always keep a close watch on the thiings happening on the niche which a person is targetting, If there is any upgrade or new information avaiable it should given to the users. It will help in keeping the website as continously updated in the eyes of various search engine.
Sam Johnson recently posted..How to Send an International Fax
Twitter: baongoc09092009
says:
I think the title is very important for any business.How do you look at the title, they can understand what you are doing.Your title is present the image of your company
Thanks so much
I feel the best way to get yourself into local seo is to add your site to classified sites and google locals. Sites like Yelp etc are helpful in promoting your site.
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Twitter: Bonnie1992
says:
Hey David,
Thanks a lot for your 7 useful tips. I just begin my business, and I have a lot of things to know and learn. Read your posts and get know about how to manage my post.Your post helps me a lot.Update with original content often is the most important thing for me now.
Truely
Bonnie
Bonnie Smith recently posted..Best Long Slot Toaster and Best 4 Slice Toasters
Very Useful Post.I always write a well optimized post and share them to as many social sites as possible. I like your image search point. I never considered this much.Thanks for the info. I will try to implement this from the next post.
sheya recently posted..UNI FM South Africa Radio Online
Twitter: newbodyblog
says:
I think social media is the key. I get the main traffic mainly through social media. Especially twitter. Since I am in the most competetive niche, that’s the only way to get any traffic righ tnow.
Adam recently posted..Mission to Gain Weight: The Beginning
Great Advice about optimizing Images for search results. Additionally, images can play a big role in your social media if you have a product or service that lends itself to pretty pictures. Don’t forget to cross promote those beautiful shots on Pinterest.
If you are pursuing a local strategy, and you don’t already have images that area really eye catching, consider working with a local professional photographer (preferably one with a good web presence). You will get some great shots to share on social media, and perhaps the photographer will use those shots (with links) to promote her portfolio on her website. This works especially well for catering, florist, or fine crafted products where you will always have a new crop of interesting images to share and show off your small business’s quality output.
Outsourcing the blogging task to a freelancer is not always a better choice. By lack of time and inspiration the small business owners would eventually delegate this job. But think about that the working staff inside the company has all the know-how of the specific activity and with a little effort could keep the blogging job in the house and write interesting articles inspired from the day-to-day work. That would be the added value given to the website as in the end the blog itself represents the company image.
Alex Saru recently posted..Land Rover – otel de 6 mm pentru protectie off road
Twitter: daaveey
says:
Hi David:
Nice starting list for ways to enhance local SEO. Thanks for writing it.
A couple of other suggestions to add would be to create individual pages for each location of a business on a website, rather than clumping all the locations on one page. This comment relates only to businesses with multiple locations, of course. Giving each location it’s own URL sends a very strong locational message to Google. When you do this, as well, you can markup each location with hCard or Microdata, which will actually enable you to convey meaning to the search engines that this page is for a business with a physical location. The link below to my article on Microdata actually goes into this in greater detail.
Thanks for the post.
David Hitt recently posted..Microdata For Internet Marketing? Yes, Probably…
Twitter: hamzatariq001
says:
Great Article on the local business SEO in search engine. But I guess, everything becomes too easy with the merging of Google Local with Google+, and Google+ Pages for Local Business. All they have to verify their page, and location of business and a little optimized web-page to reflect the work they are doing. That’s all.
Hamza Sheikh recently posted..10 Things Learned About Google & Google Adsense from Google Event
I think we can all agree that the most important thing is finding interesting topics and writing valuable content about them. I have to say that if you are an established local business with a brick-and-mortal equivalent, you need to take care of your physical resources as well. I know a couple of people that haven’t set up networks when they have used computers in their offices, stuff like not connecting all the computers to the network or just making it difficult, i.e only one machine having access to the printer.
In the past keywords were good, but these days mostly search engines crawl page title and content. so the best practice is to keep your page up to date with unique content.
Abbey recently posted..How to change login and locked screen backgroud in Windows 7
Twitter: omgbobbyg
says:
David,
I have a local business that depends on a lot of walk in traffic to drive revenue, how do your SEO strategies pertain to sites like Yelp! and other user-review sites? Does Yelp! do any sort of crawling of my web site or is that purely based on user generated content?
Bobby Gill recently posted..9 Commandments of App Building
Twitter: smashpixels
says:
Hi David,
These tips are essential and each and every local business social media manager must follow. In addition to the tips you’ve mentioned, i find local pages listing very effective for Local SEO targeting.
Thanks for the tips
Gautham Nekkanti recently posted..Way2Sms Login
Twitter: createforcash
says:
Great tips. I wouldn’t have thought to put local keywords in the title but it makes perfect sense. I think it would also make sense to put your local address in the footer if you are only going to be promoting that city.
julie recently posted..Honesty in Business
Twitter: PremiumTechBlog
says:
Hmmmmm…For Small Business Blogs we should concentrate on seo , readers and theme design not to rush for money , we should go with a self hosted wordpress Blog .
Jatin recently posted..How to add Ads Within Post Content In WordPress Without Plugin
You didn’t mention producing link-worthy content to increase rankings in search engines but all the tips you gave are nonetheless practicable and effective. I’d focus more on producing fresh content as Google tends to rank frequently updated sites higher.
Twitter: jeeskdenny
says:
I think the socical media has a great importance in setting up a Good Online FAME for your blog or any other webby stuff. In my view as a blogger, it’s the place where i’ve to concentrate a lot. Anyhow nice tips worth reading
Jees K Denny recently posted..The Real Beauty Of Linux Environments
My son has DJ business and we did blog posts about local places he did wedding receptions and we showed up when people were looking for places to have weddings in our area. Didn’t need lots of people to make a big impact in a business like ours!
Jason recently posted..Advantages of Buying a Used Diesel Lifted Truck
Twitter: leadhub
says:
I am totally agreed that Outsourcing is a must for a business because it’s much more effective if you focus on things that are the backbone of your business and let all other things done by someone else who probably will be more skilled in doing them than you.
Akshat Sethi recently posted..What Akshat Sethi’s LegalHelpStop Lives Up To.
Thanks for sharing this tips with us. The methods are good and will be very useful for us specially me. If you would have mentioned the PR too, it would have been great then. Anyways thanks for this! Good work!
selena recently posted..NBA 2K13 trainer & completed save game free Download
Twitter: sandosolutions
says:
we have found using article marketing has proven to been a successful way in generating backlinks. I do agree at the fact of localised images and localised keywords is a good way for increasing traffic on a local scale. Image searches is a good seo strategy.
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